Old sibling adversary
by Dave321
Summary: Takes place a few weeks after the events of DOA5. Zack, is now free to do whatever he wants and decides to meet up again with the MMA champ, Mila. However, their acquaintance will, then, turn into something more than just friendship. MilaXZack. My first attempt in making a story, so be nice. ;) All characters involved, except OCs, belong to Tecmo Koei and Team Ninja.
1. Prologue

Somewhere unknown...

A video-clip was shown, that looked like it was being recorded from somewhere high in the sky... and in the clip, Donovan's old base, is seen, getting completely annihilated in the explosion after the 5th Dead or Alive tournament came to an end... until it then cut to black and someone stepped forward out of the dark. It was a man, in a fine smoking with a metallic mask. And his look fell on someone, that was also hidden in the dark.

"They succeeded again... you do realize, the air is getting heavier to breath, once they find us again, right?" The man said.

The response he got came from a female woman who was under this man's orders. She had a white hair and a trademark British accent whenever she spoke. She then showed up as she revealed her white outfit. It was none other than Christie.

"They might have succeeded in getting get past us and destroy that thing...but still we got the samples for this other project of yours that is almost ready. Shouldn't this be more important now?" She asked in seriousness.

"But this project will lose all its value, once they manage to find us again. They have seen way too much. We have pretty much exposed ourselves. It will only be a matter of time, until they foil my plans again. however..." The man in the mask had to chuckle in a sinister way. "...how about, just letting them take the bait?"

That made Christie raise her eyebrows while folding her arms and leading her back against the wall.

"What do you mean?"

"I can sense that they are once again trying to find us once more. But my plan still isn't fully ready to begin...we need to take some time. And to do that...we must fool them. I want to see their dumbfounded faces, once they realize... that it was a trap all along. But we need to proceed with care... one project still needs to be finished. One more thing… never let him leave our sight... he is one hell of an unpredictable fellow." The man explained.

"Oh, he was never a threat to begin with. I wouldn't worry too much, if I were in your place... and aside from that..." Christie said as she had to smirk in a seducing manner, since she found this person to be quite handsome, for her standards. "I must admit, you have good taste indeed in finding the most suitable objects for the experiments."

The man had to smile, although it wasn't visible as his entire face was covered by his mask.  
"Once Phase-4 will finally be awake...it will be the time to release our ultimate and perfect weapon. But in the meantime, let's try to keep the ninjas busy for a while until that moment comes." He explained.

Christie remained serious and in silence for a while. As she remembered how the old laboratory exploded after Alpha-152 was defeated once and for all...she had to think about one of their old members of their organization. That woman that was last seen being stuck in there...it was unknown what happened to her once it blew up. It was assumed that she was probably deceased. And that woman was Lisa Hamilton.

"I have also witnessed that woman that used to work for us...helping the ninjas in freeing the one that we captured."

The man chuckled upon hearing this. He knew that Christie was talking about Lisa.

"Yes. Lisa Hamilton...it was predictable that she would eventually betray us."

"I never trusted her to begin with. The moment, she set foot in our ranks, she already became a sore view for my eyes... but who cares? She was never that useful anyways."

"Indeed. And all this for a few ninjas... unbelievable. But now she's dead. We do not have to be worried about her anymore."

Christie already had enough of just talking and simply wanted to get to the current situation.  
"So, what next?" She questioned.

Silence took them for a little bit. She saw the man resting the side of his head on his hand as he was sitting on his chair.

"Get the subject and bring him to this specific place that is situated underwater. I want the ninjas to be fooled into thinking, that that prison is my hideout... only to be then trapped, with no way of getting out again... alive, at least... hehehe..."

Christie stopped his chuckle as she demanded the full details of the exact location of this prison. Her boss did so as he showed it on a monitor.

"Should I knock the subject out?" Christie asked afterwards.

"Feel free to do so. It doesn't matter anyway. My research on his DNA is as good as finished." The man told her.

Christie then simply turned around and walked out of the room to do what her boss just ordered. The man then resumed to give a proper look at his new weapon inside the container. The man then revealed himself. It was the boss of this new organization known as ''MIST''. It was Victor Donovan.

"Just wait a little longer, my precious weapon. Soon it will be your time to rise."

Meanwhile...

Several weeks have passed since the end of the 5th Dead Or Alive tournament with Jann Lee coming out as the winner. The host of the tournament, Zack, just returned back in the cruise ship where Helena Douglas resided as the current leader of DOATEC. Upon arriving inside, Zack noticed her boss, Helena having a chat with Bayman. They seemed to talk about something important, judging by how serious they were. The DJ however didn't seem to really care about, and so he interrupted with his usual happy demeanor

"Helena, You wanted to see me?" Zack said.

He smirked in his typical way as he was always ready to please Helena for anything. Since that time, where he saved her life from committing suicide, Zack begun to have romantic interest in her. However, Helena never returned this as she simply regarded Zack as a friend and someone who followed her orders. She stopped her conversation with Bayman and looked at the DJ with a smile.

"There you are Zack. " Helena responded.

"So…what else do I have to do in order to please the beloved, Helena Douglas?"

The French giggled a bit at the way Zack was calling her as she always felt honored, before returning a bit serious.

"You did a pretty good job in sending invitations to the fighters for the tournament, Zack. Now I have no task for you at the moment. You're free to go and do whatever you want." She told him.

That made Zack wide his eyes in shock.

"What? Seriously…I mean, nothing at all?" The DJ questioned.

"Don't worry, I'll give you a call If I have a new task for you." Helena said in attempt to reassure him.

Despite this, Zack sighed. But eventually nodded before turning back. Just when he was about to leave, he stopped and listened to the conversation Helena and Bayman were having. They were talking about finding a way to put a stop to Donovan and his new organization known as MIST. Zack could hear how Helena was enjoying speaking with Bayman, making him understand that the French woman was possibly enamored with the mercenary. This totally made the DJ feeling jealous and sad, like if his happiness totally faded away. It gave him a breakdown. Feeling heartbroken, Zack returned on his helicopter, alone, and sighed again in a sad way as the loneliness was pretty much bothering him. He looked at the two pictures he had, that were about Helena and his ex-girlfriend, Niki, before ripping them off and throwing them out of the chopper.

"I really suck at romance, eh..?" Zack said to himself.

He was feeling bored and sad. He wanted to, at least, see someone but he didn't know who. Tina was, now, governor of New York…and so she was most likely, busy. Not to mention that he was slowly growing a bit of a distrust and also a grudge to her, due to the way she treated him during the announcement of the 5th tournament, just when he was traveling to invite the fighters to join the competition. And most of the other girls were nowhere to be found for him. The DJ was already giving in and thought about staying in on the ship and doing nothing…and feeling bored. However, just when he was about to exit the chopper…an idea came out in his mind as he then smiled widely. He immediately started the engine of the chopper and prepared to return in town, in New York.

"I know where to go! I just hope she's still in that gym." He said in his mind as he kept smiling.

He was talking about the girl he met and barely knew: Mila. the Spanish MMA champ and the newcomer who participated the 5th Dead or Alive tournament. She was also the first fighter that Zack gave the invitation to join the tournament. He remembered when he got contacted by the owner of that gym to visit the place since Mila was highly interested in joining the tournament. Zack could never decline an offer like that, and so he gladly went to meet her to test her strength, to see for himself, if she was ready for the tournament. Indeed she was as she was able to handle him and beat him in a sparring match.

And now, he was ready to meet her again as he headed to the only clue. That gym…since he knew that Mila was someone who never stopped training in there.


	2. Chapter 1

His hopes were answered. Just as he arrived back in town, precisely the city of New York, Zack headed towards that place that was called "Maxwell's gym". The reason why it was called like this didn't really matter to him. All he cared about was to see if the MMA fighter, Mila, really was there training. And there she was…just as Zack entered the place, he witnessed the girl fully clothed in her MMA gear, but she looked like if she had yet to start her workout. Zack thought that this was perfect. Just as the two reunited with each other, after their previous encounter during the announcement of the 5th DOA tournament, the DJ asked her if he could join her and being her sparring partner. Mila didn't hesitate to agree at all. She always loved to train with somebody rather than training alone. Also she remembered when she fought Zack…her first opponent who didn't fight with MMA like her, and she sure knew it was tough. Plus, this could have been a good chance for her to relieve herself from her loss at the quarter finals and becoming strong…by sparring again with a non-MMA practitioner. Fortunately, Zack brought his Muay Thai gear when he was heading back in town, since this was something that he wanted to do when he decided to meet Mila again. So, After quickly returning back to his car and taking his training clothes, he went to the changing room for males to change himself while, Mila jumped into the ring and waited for him to come.

Sweat was then dropping from Mila's body as she was finally sparring with Zack once again in the ring inside the gym. If you would compare their first match, this was only a walk through the park with Mila now facing the real deal this time. She noticed that Zack actually fought more seriously, despite still having his confident behavior. She saw him doing his fighting stance as he taunted to attack.

"C'mon! Give me everything you've got!" He said.

Mila smiled ,determined, before charging at him and threw her punches and kicks. Zack kept maintaining his guard while blocking her attacks. Then, he attempted to uppercut her, but she immediately dodged it at a right time, before she extended her arm to punch him in the chest. Zack barely avoided that one.

"Looks like I am getting there!" She said with determination.

The DJ tried to use his furry kicks but only a few of them landed a hit on the Spanish, as she then blocked the rest of them, except the last one in which she avoided it by lowering herself and tackling him to the ground. Zack got distracted and blushed a bit about realizing that Mila was on top of him. Sure this wasn't the first time he was in this position…he had to admit that he missed it, considering how he always enjoyed the company of attractive women like her. However, this carelessness costed him to not pay attention to what Mila was about to do, before he receiving two hard mounted punches in the face by her. However, Zack managed to break free before she could throw the third and last punch. The two then stood up and stopped fighting as the panted in exhaustion.

"Not bad, really." Zack said through his panting as he sighed and scratched the back of his bald head. "That really hurt, eh? Haha! Anyways, let us call it a day."

Mila nodded as she smiled and approached him. "OK. thank you Zack, for training with me today!"

Zack smirked at this before helping her getting out of her black gloves.

"I remember the last time we sparred, you wanted to join the Dead Or Alive 5 tournament so badly because you wanted to meet and fight Bass." Zack said.

But ,upon hearing this, Mila's smile faded away as she sure felt disappointed by the fact that she didn't even manage to at least win one of the fights at the tournament and realize her dream, despite her own fighting-spirit telling her to not give in, since that was part of her nature.

"Yeah...but then I got defeated in the quarter finals..."

"I know that. I was there watching you and the others since I was the host. So, have you at least met Bass in the end?" Zack questioned as he was finished helping her in taking off her gloves.

And what he saw, after he asked that question, was Mila shaking her head as she looked a little bit sad.

"No I didn't...I haven't even seen Tina again after the tournament..." She responded.

Zack tried to hide his hidden grudge with Tina, for the way he had been treated by her last time, as he laughed in a happy demeanor.

"Typical Tina! She always finds a way to try something different. But don't worry, she is still in the US. She has become governor of New York!" He said as he tried to calm down.

Mila's eyes widened in shock and Zack looked at her confused afterwards.

"What, you didn't know..?"

"No..."

He still was confused since he thought that Mila would have still be there and, at least, watch Tina fighting her father even after her loss, since she was a huge fan of the latter and a close friend of the daughter.

"Well, she announced it during the tournament just after losing against her own daddy." Zack said.

Mila's jaw dropped. She really didn't know anything.

"Oh my goodness... does she even have any idea how to be a good politician? As far as my knowledge goes, she is in her mid 20's... don't you think, that this is a bit early?" She asked.

Zack could only chuckle and nodded in agreement. If he was in Tina's position, he would have been done for sure, since he never had the experience for something like this. And also, it would have spoiled his freedom as well as trying to find a few methods to entertain the girls he knew, like inviting them in his islands. And he never really was fond of politic stuff.

"I know right? Well, we'll see how she'll handle it." He said.

Then, both got out of the ring to then going to their showers in their respective changing rooms. Later they came out, wearing casual clothes and left the building. Since Zack was far from over in enjoying the company of someone, he followed Mila on the way which confused her a bit.

"You know, I have faith that you might have more luck in the next tournament. Seeing how much better you have gotten this time." He complimented her.

"Thank you, Zack. I really appreciate it, but I think...against a man like Mr. Armstrong...I believe it's gonna be tough. " She said.

The DJ grinned at this. He had several flashbacks of when he and Bass started to have a rivalry, due to Zack's attraction to Tina, and how it went on until last time where the two seemed like to be more on friendly terms…but not completely.

"Oh well, can't blame you, especially for all the beatings I suffered by him. I still remember our big rivalry we had in the past..." He then wrapped one arm around her shoulders. "But don't worry, I'm pretty sure you'll have more luck than me."

Even Zack, himself, was impressed at what he just said since this was untypical for him to say. Maybe something good within him was finally taking over. Mila smiled and blushed a tiny bit from his touch.

"Thank you, Zack. You are a sweet man." She said.

That made Zack wide his eyes under his sunglasses. He could have sworn that someone just called him a "Sweet man".

"What? I'm…sweet?"

"Yeah? Is something the matter?" She questioned as she looked at him in confusion. But all she then noticed was Zack chuckling to himself, leaving the Spanish girl even more confused.

"Hahaha, nobody has ever said something like this to me...anyway, what are you gonna do now?"

"Well, I got to go to the Diner. You know, I have a part time job as a waitress." Mila said as she reminded him of how she spent most of her days.

"Oh right! Shall I drive you to the diner?" Zack suggested.

Mila raised her eyebrows in surprise, as this was unexpected, before smiling. She always appreciated when someone, that she knew and could trust, would offer her a ride to get to where she needed to go.

"Oh err...Ok, why not?"

With that being said, they went to the car that Zack used to get there after his chopper landed on the heliport of the city. It was a 'White Renault' and had a space for four passengers. Zack grinned, and opened the door where Mila needed to sit. This gesture made her giggle a little.

"Umm, you don't need to-"

"C'mon." Zack said, with a grin, as he interrupted her.

Mila blushed lightly before entering the car. Zack closed the door before opening the one in the other side where there was the wheel to drive, as he started the engine. While he was driving, Zack put on the radio some DJ music and he danced his head in time.

"Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" He exclaimed with a smirk.

Watching Zack humming his favorite DJ music and grinning at the same time, made Mila giggle silently and, somehow, even blush. Later they finally arrived at the diner and Zack stopped before the entrance.

"OK, we're here."

"Yeah…thanks for the ride, Zack. I highly appreciate it."

Zack then took his phone and told Mila to take her own one too. She was feeling strange at first, but then she realized why he asked that. He wanted that they would give each other's number.

"Give me your number and I'll give you mine. So then, when you need me for something…you let me know." He told her.

He also began to briefly explain to her that now he was free to do whatever he wanted, ever since the end of the tournament…and he admitted that the boredom was getting the best of him. Mila was surprised at this, and since she hadn't seen Tina or any friend she knew after the tournament, she felt bored too…since her days kept going on with her training alone in the gym…and then working at the diner.

"Of course, Zack. I can give you a call so that we can have some fun and relieve ourselves from the boredom." Mila said with a wink.

Zack nodded and was already feeling excited on the inside.

"Although, I'll remind you that my time here at the diner as a waitress is not that short. I'll finish almost when it's time for dinner. If you want, we can see each other after that. Is that fine to you?" She asked.

Zack was already feeling a little bit disappointed now after he heard that. Because that would mean, waiting for lots of hours. Still he maintained his happiness 'cause, at least, the wait will be worth it until he won't feel alone again. He nodded at her once more.

"Sounds good to me, Mily! See you later. Give me a call, eh? " He said.

Mila blushed once more upon hearing this nickname that Zack just gave her. She already loved it. She then proceeded to exit the car and the two waved each other before she entered the diner to resume her job as a waitress.

Once she went inside to start her work... what she didn't notice, was how she was being watched the whole time from someone. But luckily for her, she wasn't alone, since there were a few of her colleagues present, so that she wasn't on her own during her work shift. But as soon as a cloaked man entered the diner and sat down in front of where Mila was currently looking... she didn't even notice him yet. His face was barely visible and by the way he was dressed, kind of freaked out Mila once she dared looking at him. He looked creepy...and the Spanish hoped that he would leave the diner immediately so that she could resume her work without feeling distracted like this. She then noticed that he was about to smoke a cigarette. This was forbidden. And so, one of her collogues immediately intervened and told this person that he could not smoke there. The person nodded as he raised his arms in defense before tossing the cigarette on the small trash can. Mila witnessed all of this before her own boss tapped her shoulder, making her snap out of her distraction.

"Mila, don't distract yourself."

"Oh! Sorry." Mila said as she felt embarrassed.

"I am not paying you for staying around like that. I know it's late, but concentrate as best as you can, alright?" The boss told her.

"Sure I will, don't worry... hehehe..." Mila said as she still felt a bit awkward.

The female Spanish then had to look quite nervous, as the man was still there. He didn't seem to move. He was there sitting and looking at the table that was in front of him. Mila then attempted to focus and tried to ignore this person as she finally started to serve the guests at the diner for food and drinks. Hours and hours passed and it was getting late. Her time to work was almost over...but the man still was there and he didn't leave yet. Mila started to feel strange...because she didn't know why this sudden person that looked a bit creepy from the way he was dressed, didn't order something yet. Why was he even there in the first place? She wanted to go there to ask him if he wanted something...but her own mind told her otherwise. Finally, the time was up and Mila had to pass her turn to one of her collogues and return home. While she was out, she kinda hoped that Zack was there to give her a ride back home, judging by the fact that he told her that he was free. But sadly he wasn't there. And since that man from the diner made her feel uncomfortable during these hours of work, she wanted to return back home quickly. She saw taxi nearby as she quickly yelled to stop in order to jump in.

As soon as the driver stopped, she immediately jumped onto the front seat next to the driver and it was obvious, that she was sweating out of nervosity... before giving the driver the address, where she lived and later, she found herself in front of the stairway that lead to her safe place... home. The taxi driver then drove away, leaving Mila at the entrance of her house. She took a look around her before shaking her head and began to smile confidently.

"Oh, silly me. I should stop worrying so much like this." She thought.

She decided to simply pretend that this sudden feeling she had while working upon seeing that person, never happened, as she finally went inside her house and she couldn't feel more alive than ever. As soon as she threw her training bag into the next corner, without even hesitating, she let herself fall on her surprisingly huge bed and allowed herself to stretch both of her arms and legs in delight.

"There is no place like home..." She whispered.

And then she remembered Zack having given her, his phone number. So she decided to add it to her chatting app in order to contact him there. She smiled to herself just at remembering how much of a gentlemen he acted earlier. And upon seeing his profile picture in the chatting app, which was him performing his signature pose with an outfit that seemed like an alien, she couldn't help but to giggle at it. Then she decided to send him a message about if he would like to hang out and have fun with her in order to relieve him from the boredom that he most likely was having. However, once she sent that message, she had to wait for the response because he was offline for the moment.

"Oh well, I guess he will respond sooner or later."

With that being said, Mila began getting up from the bed and have dinner. She prepared fast food because she wasn't the type of person to eat a lot. While doing this, she sure had to feel a bit of loneliness, ever since the end of the 5th tournament...due to how Tina was now busy with her current occupation and how most of her other friends were busy. But when she thought again about how Zack returned to the gym to meet her, she started to smile as she hoped that he, at least, would try to relieve her just as she was about to do same thing with him. After having dinner...someone knocked at the door. This already rose a red flag for Mila... she looked at her clock on the wall and realized comically.

"Oh man, don't tell me, I forgot the new order that I requested... but wait... I thought the postmen don't work anymore during nighttime..." She said to herself confused.

She went over to open the door and once she saw a casually dressed guy before herself... she became curious. But what she didn't realize, that the face of this guy was fake, it was a realistic-looking mask.

"Hello, pretty lady! I gotta a special present for you!" The person said as he showed before his hand, a ticket for an invitation to a club situated somewhere in the Bronx. Mila took the ticket and looked carefully at it.

"Have a good one!"

Before Mila could say anything...the masked person already was off. Since she wasn't able to see the man's face... his voice, however, made her eyes narrowed a little since she could swear she had heard it somewhere already. Her gaze then fell upon the invitation... it looked pretty alluring to say the least.

"Oh well... probably watching some little dancing and booze would do the job for my boredom... better than sitting around doing nothing." She said.

With that being said, she returned inside her apartment and prepared herself to go to the club. She checked her phone to see if Zack replied to the message she sent to him before...but sadly she was still without response as he was still offline. She wanted to give him a call and try to ask him if he would like to go with her at this party...but something within her was telling otherwise. It was the fact that, due to him being offline this whole time, it made her think that maybe he must be busy with something and no longer was free. She felt that she shouldn't disturb him. She then looked at the invitation she just received... she couldn't deny, that she indeed was bored senseless right now and since her work shift would only start in the afternoon tomorrow... she then came to a decision.

"Hm. I might as well head straight for that party. And when I am there... maybe Zack will be reachable, let's see." She said.

She then quickly went to her room to change herself into something lighter for the dance-club. She later came out wearing something more suitable for a dance club. Sure something like this was unusual for her, since most her days were simply training in the gym and working as a waitress at the diner. Still having the opportunity to have fun in a dance-club wasn't something that happened once in a while in her life, so she was feeling more than confident to go. She looked at the invitation to see the address and where the place was situated. She was feeling a bit anxious when she learned that it was in the Bronx. She never really liked to be in that kind of place. Nontheless, she tried to not give any care. Finally she left her house and went to take a bus that could lead her to the dance-club.

"In the future...I better start driving school to get a license as soon as possible. Then Zack won't always be forced to drive me somewhere, whenever it's needed..." She thought as she paid for her ticket and jumped in the bus to get to the Bronx.

And later, once she got out of the bus, she began to feel uneasy, as soon as she set foot in that shady entrance to that part of New York... she looked around, always on guard for whatever dared to get in her way. She normally hated to use her skills to harm others outside of the ring. But, in the Bronx, violence was a running loose there on a daily basis. So she didn't feel bad about it.

"Alright... no suspect insight..."

She took another look in the invitation she received and followed the way to get to the dance-club. She began walking while trying to get to the place as well as asking around for indication, despite still feeling a bit anxious. After a little while of the search while walking...she saw, from a distance, the name of that club. She took one last look to the invitation and then to the place to make sure she wasn't mistaking. She smiled.

"Finally!" She said relieved.

She walked faster. As she approached the entrance, she saw two guards stopping her and asking if she had the invitation. Mila didn't waste time to show it and once the two guards saw it, they nodded and let her pass.

At last, the MMA champ was inside. The high music was blasting through the place. Numerous girls dancing around with other men as well as other people sitting on their stools and drinking. The loud music was a little too much for Mila, since she wasn't used to this yet... but once she sat down, where the bartender was, she decided to order a glass of water. And she had to blush a little, since she noticed a few men staring at the outfit she was wearing for tonight and how it hugged her figure.

"Look who we have here... a whole new sort of meat is on the market, buddy."

"Should we ask her for a dance?"

"Nahh, I can sense she's too shy to dance...and I don't want to make her feel uncomfortable."

"You're too much of a gentleman! You should be more open and ask the ladies out with more confidence, dude!"

While Mila started to drink a glass of water that she ordered, peacefully, she took a look around her and she had to smile in a relaxed way. Even though she wasn't used to something like this...she couldn't help but feel comfortable. The music then suddenly changed into something more funky. It came from a certain part of the party. And when she looked to where it came from...her eyes widened in shock. It was Zack...and he was doing his DJ stuff.

"Zack is here?! Hmmm... that'd explain, why he didn't respond to my message, he was here the whole time, doing his job... should I show him, that I am also present here?" She said in herself.

Mila thought long and hard about it, because she didn't want Zack to feel embarrassed by her sudden appearance, since she was pretty sure... the female audience members will mistake her for his girlfriend. She sighed before shaking her head and no longer caring anymore. And so, she stood up from her seat and went to the other side of the place, to make her more visible to make sure Zack would notice her. She leaned against the wall...and after thinking for a while, she lifted her arm up to wave in the direction to where the black DJ was busy doing his stuff.

Zack was distracted at watching the people dancing as he also danced his head at the music at the right rhythm. Once he dared looking on his left...he noticed a good looking dress that Mila was wearing. And he couldn't help but to feel excited about the fact that she was also there. He wanted to go down there and greet her, but he had to concentrate on his work, so he couldn't look in her direction any longer... Mila had to look a little disappointed, but she wanted to talk with him so badly... but suddenly, she got the feeling of being watched again. Her eyes narrowed as she looked around herself to make sure, that no perv would have the nerve to touch her inappropriately. To her luck, nobody was behind her and that made her feel relaxed again. She returned to gaze Zack as he was still busy in mixing with the music. Watching him happily doing what he always did best...somehow, made Mila smile again. Just as she was feeling good, however, her mouth got suddenly covered by someone's hand, to prevent her to scream. She was then being touched everywhere in her body. She didn't know what was going on...until her eyes managed to barely see, four people clothed with hood jackets. She realized that she was being silently ambushed…and kidnapped. Due to her mouth being covered and some of the kidnappers silently smacking her head from behind, she felt unconscious while feeling powerless to do something.

Just when Zack was finished with his job, he left the stage to look for Mila, who he has seen before... but after having looked everywhere in the area, there was no sign of her whatsoever.

"That's strange, I could have sworn, that she was here..." He mumbled before he exited the club to see if she was outside.

Then much to his shock...he saw, from a distance, Mila being dragged unconscious by two people who looked like bad news. He got angry, and so he ran as fast as he could and stopped the two people from going any further.

"Hey, you!" Zack shouted.

Just as it was expected, the two kidnappers stopped and already felt alerted since they thought the kidnapping was supposed to be sneaky with no one noticing it.

"What the HELL are you doing with her!? Let her go!" Zack angrily demanded.

The two kidnappers looked at each other and didn't know what to do since this was unexpected. Zack didn't waste any time and angrily prepared himself to attack the two guys...only to be suddenly touched, from behind, by someone who forcefully turned him around knocked him out with his baseball bat, making Zack falling to the ground unconscious too.

"Boss...what are going to do, now? That guy seemed to have spot us while we tried to kidnap your sister." One of the two kidnappers said.

The person, who just knocked Zack out, revealed himself. He had black hair and was wearing something usual for a normal ''civilian''. He looked with a glare.

"Let's take this guy with us as well...in order to not alert anyone else. We'll get rid of him too. Hurry, before other people see us." He said with a deep voice.

They nodded and, afterwards, the person took the unconscious Zack away along with his two followers who dragged the unconscious Mila inside a place where no one could notice or hear them.


	3. Chapter 2

Despite feeling pain in her body, the female Spanish slowly opened her eyes, all the while stirring, as if she just fell asleep, moments ago. But the first thing she shall come to realize, was that she was unable to move an inch. And as she looked around, some scent came into her nose... it smelled like a playboy perfume. It was so familiar, because she happened to know someone, that had that kind of smell to him... Zack. And when she turned her head to the left, she could see Zack, sitting right next to her, also tied up in the chair. Mila couldn't exactly remember what happened, aside from the fact that she was at a club. Upon seeing Zack without conscious and chained up, just like her...she began feeling deeply concerned.

"Zack...! Zack, wake up!" She said as she tried to call him.

But unfortunately, he didn't do what she said. After that attempt, she heard footsteps, and Mila looked to where she could hear the noises and started to glare a little.

"Hey, whoever you are...you're making a big mistake! What do you want from me and him!?"

"Is that how you greet someone of your own flesh and blood, sister...?" A sudden voice said.

Once Mila heard the voice and it calling her "sister"... it all flooded her entire mind. A shadow came out of the darkness and it removed the hoody to reveal the same person that Mila actually dreaded up until now to see ever again.

"N-No, this can't be... you...?! Mark?!" Mila said while feeling shocked and incredulous.

The person, now known as Mark and Mila's brother, smirked as he grabbed a chair to sit in front of the two. Watching his sister sitting on a chair with hands and feet tied up, making her unable to move, made the situation amusing in his eyes.

"Surprised to see me? How many years has it been? A lot, I think? How did your life go after you moved here in New York to keep training with MMA? Did you really think that you would get rid of me by simply going here in the East Coast in America? And to think I'd never imagined that you would even have the courage to compete in a tournament like that Dead Or Alive thing." Mark said.

Everything was now pretty much clear to Mila. She remembered the creepy person with a hood jacket from the diner and she kept being distracted while working. She could only narrow her eyes.

"It was you, right? You were at the diner today..."

Her brother had to let out a chuckle, as he knew, how his sister's memory sucked and he now took advantage of it.

"Oh really? Guess you really are suffering under the symptoms of "too-forgettable-and-blind"-syndrome... how could you possibly think, THAT was me? At least, I am not as naive as you are, presenting myself on a silver tablet like that. No, that was one of my henchmen. A spy, so to speak. He is supposed to follow every single one of your steps, until he reached place you apparently live in." Mark explained.

But this made Mila confused completely. Since when she heard the person at her house, he sounded just like her brother.

"But...that v-voice..."

"Hehehe, guess it really went smoothly as expected. A perfect mic hidden in my spy's ear with my voice recorded. I guess you're very easy to fool. It's the best thing I like about you." Her brother said.

Mark began to chuckle as he looked at her sister with a smug, much to Mila's disgust.

"It is the perfect plan... something that ONLY works with you. And since you ate my bait, you pretty much took a huge target with you, that showed me: Plan Was Successful."

Just then a male slight moan was heard. It came from Zack, as he was slowly opening his eyes and regaining consciousness. However, upon opening them, he realized he was without his sunglasses and couldn't move as he was tied.

"Wha...what the heck!? Where am I!? Where are my sunglasses!?" Zack said in a shocked way and shook a little in attempt to break free, but failed.

The DJ started to look around, before Mark took something from his pocket. He showed in his hand, Zack's sunglasses. He must have taken them from him after he knocked him out.

"Were you looking for these?" Mark asked. After hearing that, Zack's gaze immediately fell on Mark and witnessed him putting them on. "Nice sunglasses, I must say."

If there was one thing, that Zack hated more than anything else, was whenever someone stole his sunglasses and put them on without his permission... and his blood immediately began to boil, once he saw Mark acting oh-so-cool, just because he had himself and Mila in his hands.

"Hey, douchebag! Gimme' the sunglasses right away!" Zack angrily said.

"Why should I...?" Mark responded.

"Because if you don't...I'm going to whoop your ass real BAD!" Zack threatened.

Mark burst out in laughter afterwards. "Oh really? Tell me, how are you supposed to do that? You can't even move yourself. Something is preventing you to do so... you black schmuck." He said as he insulted him.

Zack gritted his teeth in anger so much. He then noticed Mila, next to him, who was with her head looking down in shame, and began asking for explanations.

"Mila! What's going on!? Who the hell is this guy!?" Zack asked her.

"That's right, sister. Tell him who am I." Mark added.

When the DJ heard "sister"...he lost his anger and became curious and surprised. Mila shook her head in shame while closing her eyes. She began speaking with a disappointing tone.

"After all these years...I thought you changed, Mark. I can't believe you keep having this stupid beef with me." She said.

Now Zack really started to become confused.

"Mily...is this guy...your brother?" Zack questioned.

Mila nodded slowly as she kept speaking with her disillusioned demeanor.

"Yes...and a very obnoxious one. He always whined about our parents giving more love to me than to him, even though it wasn't really like that. And so he began having this grudge against me, for taking away his 'life', as he puts it. Zack... Before you and I met, I lived and studied in Spain before... and then moved to New York once I finished the studies. Now I may live here, but...it appears that Mark, my brother here, just wouldn't stop taking this grudge. I do not know what he did after I moved here in America...I can't believe he would travel all this way to get here...just to do this to me." She explained.

Hearing that all from his now good friend, made his entire view upon the world completely lose color.

"If that's true... how come, you never informed me about all of this?" Zack asked.

"Because she is too insecure to accept anything." Mark interrupted.

Mark then approached Zack, as he looked at him.

"Now... you might asking, why we have captured you as well. Simple...you spot us when my men took my sister. And we want to avoid people seeing what I'm doing since they might call the cops. Guess you know what this means."

Zack didn't say a word...all he did was glaring at Mark. The latter, then raised his eyebrows after carefully looking at his eyes before chuckling.

"Wait a sec… you're that weirdo with that fake afro hair in his head who was in that arena to announce that tournament? Hahaha I guess this is incredible! I get to hurt my contemptible sister...AND an unfunny guy!"

Zack growled so much. Sure he could sometimes easily handle Tina's teasing, but this absolutely not. He spit in Mark's face making him become angry as well and punched Zack in the face hard. Mila's blood has begun to boil, as soon as her brother revealed himself to her as the kidnapper and it only got better, once he dared to make Zack kiss his fist.

"Who do you think you are?! Isn't it enough, that you harm me and now you have to harm anybody else that comes near you?! You prick!"

But once Mila said that, her brother kicked her against the nose, hard enough to then make it bleed a little.

"What did you say, sister? That kick right now was a little TOO loud." He taunted.

Mila panted after that hit, and she was starting to feel very angry at this point. She looked at her crazy brother with her mad look as her nose still bleed a little.

"You are pathetic, Mark... you had many chances to improve yourself, but you all wasted them by harming me constantly... all I can say, is that I no longer want you to refer me as your sister. I've had enough of you and your bullshit!" She angrily told him.

Mark didn't take this as an offence, but more like a compliment. He approached her and grabbed her by her throat.

"I appreciate it. I think this were your last words."

Mila widened her eyes in shock upon seeing her brother taking from behind him a knife. He was about to stab and kill her with it. Zack, who recovered from the hit he received, witnessed this and immediately was about to prevent it.

"Time to die, sister!" Mark threatened.

Before the knife could make contact with Mila's skin...Zack yelled what seemed like a battle-cry as he, somehow, jumped at Mark, still with his arms tied against the chair. However, after he jumped at him, the knife unwillingly cut the strands, thus freeing Zack's hands. Mark got tackled by Zack before the DJ knocked him out with one head-butt.

"That was for stealing my sunglasses, you douchebag!" Zack said in anger.

He took his sunglasses and put them back on. He had to show a confident smile as it felt good to him. Then he stood up, took the knife and proceeded to free Mila.

"Mila, you ok?" Zack asked with concern.

Mila was still baffled at how quick Zack was to free himself and save her. He just saved her life. And she took the hand that Zack offered her to stand up off the chair.

"Uhhh, yes, I am fine... thanks..." She said with a slight blush.

"You can thank me as soon as we get outta here. I fear, the longer we stall, the quicker his party arrives."

Mila nodded as she stood up. She didn't have any will to look at her, now, unconscious brother. She still felt disgusted by his actions and what he just tried to do. Before the two could leave the warehouse...they heard voices.

"Those noises!"

"I think those two managed to free themselves!"

Mark's goons must have heard what happened and were right now about to show up to prevent the duo to flee. Both Zack and Mila felt alerted at this point.

"I gotta a feeling that fighting those punks would be a waste of time! We better try to get past them and get the hell out of here!" Zack suggested.

But before they could do anything, they were already surrounded by an army of Mark's henchmen. With no way to escape, Mila and Zack were left with no other choice.

"Ok, forget what I said. Mily... seems these guys don't want us to leave... should we?"

"Since my brother has quite a bunch, that needs to get spanked some sense into them... I say, yes." Mila responded while feeling determined.

Zack also smirked and felt a bit excited as he was about to team up, for the first time, even though for a little while, with someone who he just grew fond on. The thugs yelled while charging at the duo. Zack began to fight off some of them, same for Mila. They seemed to not have a hard time as the thugs were very easy to take down. Zack nailed two of them with a double kick, while Mila kicked hard one of them before another one attempted to grab her from behind. Despite succeeding in doing so, Mila didn't give in as she used her strength to free herself, before turning around and punched the thug in the face hard. The punch had enough strength to make the criminal crash into his comrades behind him, four at a time, knocking them out immediately. Mila then used her Flicker stance to trick the thugs behind her to get closer and once one of them did, he got bombarded with a whole bunch of punches, coming from the MMA champ and he kissed the floor, before it could even start. It couldn't get any more embarrassing. And as for Zack, he too, had no issue in taking down these troublemakers. He then pulled off one of iconic taunts... he stopped in front of two thugs, before taking off his sunglasses, letting out a spark of light emanating from them, which only confused these guys even more... but then, Zack had already kneed the two thugs in the gut with both of his knees separately.

This was more than enough for the two to then escape since most of Mark's goons were knocked out and unable to stand up for more. There were a few other thugs coming, but since both Zack and Mila had no time in wasting breath, they decided to do what the DJ suggested...and that was to run past them and attempt to flee. Fortunately, none of the thugs seemed armed with guns, and so it was easy to try to avoid them and get away. Thanks to Zack's impressive agility in using his kicks to quickly kick anyone who would try to stop them...they finally reached the exit of the warehouse.

"Good thing my car is not too far from here. Quickly!" Zack said.

He grabbed Mila's wrist as they both ran. She had to give another blush after feeling that touch. She was also feeling impressed and surprised at how ''protective'' and ''heroic'' Zack behaved towards this whole situation. She never saw this side of him before. At last, they reached Zack's car and both jumped in immediately. The DJ started the engine without a second thought and had to speed up a little to make sure they wouldn't be spotted by the thugs. And soon, both were already on their way back to the safer parts of New York… home. Along the way, Mila felt strange. On one hand, she was really glad, that Zack saved her, but on the other, she got this uneasy feeling, that this would probably not be the last time, she was going to see her brother. However, with Zack having saved her bacon, she felt much better now, especially in his presence. She wanted to thank him again... but had a hard time to do so, for some reason. While driving Zack noticed Mila feeling a bit sad despite being saved. It kind of concerned the DJ.

"Mila? Everythin' cool?"

Mila rested her cheek on her hand as she sighed in a depressed way.

"I only want my life to be peaceful... just ONCE. Is that too much to ask for?" She said.

Zack didn't know what to say in order to comfort her. As he kept driving, Mila broke the silence that was taking them for a while as she spoke to him.

"Answer me one question, Zack... were you ever harassed by your own sibling?" She questioned him.

Zack raised his eyebrows after hearing that question, while looking at the road and speaking at the same time.

"Well...I actually never had a brother...but...I kinda know the feeling. Although I never had to deal with people that actually wanted to kill you in a way like what just happened. I'd rather being teased by Tina than by a real psycho like your brother." He responded.

Mila then grew curious about how negatively Zack repeatedly talked about Tina... and now it appeared to be the correct time to ask for answers.

"Judging from the way, you mention Tina... I'd like to know... how did she "tease" you? Was she the only one?"

Now Zack started to feel bit uneasy too. He shouldn't have mentioned Tina's name and he definitely didn't feel like talking about her. He still had that hidden grudge… still he didn't want Mila to be left without answers. And so he tried to give one quick answer that hoped it was more than enough.

"L-Let's say...no. But I had to deal with people who were really obnoxious. And Tina is an angel compared to them."

Since Mila sensed Zack growing uncomfortable with the question, she simply decided to leave it at the answer he just gave her, as she hated making people feel bad about something, all because of her questioning. But she had to ask something about her brother.

"You think... that he will return to bother us again?" Mila questioned.

Zack knew that she was talking about her brother. He began to give a little smirk as he put his hand on her right shoulder, while the other focused on driving on the wheel. While responding, he gave a few glances at Mila before keeping his eyes on the road.

"Whatever your brother did to ya, just forget it and try to move on, since I think the police will eventually deal with him and his 'friends'. It's hard to do this, sure...but if you want, I will help you getting over him and your past life with him. And I know many good ways of doin' just that. You want to feel free and careless... then you have picked the correct address with me."

Mila felt impressed... and she looked at Zack with an innocent and hopeful grin.

"So... you want to help me?" She asked.

"Sure! After all, how could I not, after having saved your butt back there?" He said with a grin.

Both looked at each other and Mila didn't know how to feel happier than now. Someone who she know a bit little about, just saved her from an old living nightmare of her past, and now he wanted to help her in getting over it. This was also her chance to already repay him for this, and that was to keep him company whenever he needed, since she remembered what he told her and his current state in his work.

"Zack, you really are a sweet man..." She declared it.

As they both looked at each other, Zack lost his focus on the road and their touching moment was then ruined by a passing car, as they felt startled.

"WATCH OUT, YOU DUMBASS! WATCH THE ROAD!" A driver yelled.

"SORRY!" Zack yelled back as he apologized.

He quickly turned right to avoid the passing car. This made Mila fall on Zack's chest which widened his eyes under his sunglasses. After resuming his balance and going in his normal speed, the DJ arrived at Mila's house, just as his navigation system was calculated, and stopped in front of the entrance. Zack sighed relieved and smiled while chuckling a bit.

"Here we are..." Zack said through his heavy breathing.

He noticed that Mila was still in his chest wrapping her arms around him as she was scared that Zack would have crashed. He patted her back and chuckled.

"You can let go of me now, Mily. Your personal cab has brought you home, safe and sound." He said as he smirked.

Once Mila realized, she had wrapped her arms around her new friend, her face started to comically redden, as she then gasped and comically shook her hands in defense.

"S-Sorry! D-Didn't mean to-"

"No need to apologize, hahaha!" Zack interrupted her as he kept chuckled.

Both got out of the car as they walked near the entrance of the house. Mila still had her cheeks a bit red after she wrapped her arms around Zack's body 'accidentally'. But the fact that Zack did not have any problem, especially for the way he normally was, it already relieved her.

"Next time I drive my car with you...I better not lose my focus on the road."

He chuckled at his comment and Mila had to giggle a little. The DJ then watched the hour on his watch before looking at the MMA champ with a grin.

"Well, take care ok? I'll see you soon." He said.

He winked, though Mila couldn't see that, due to him wearing the sunglasses. The DJ turned around...only to be stopped upon hearing Mila's voice.

"Wait up, Zack."

He didn't waste time in turning around while keep showing his confident grin.

"I just want to say...thank you for...for saving me. And also...are you going to be at gym tomorrow morning? I mean after all the mess that happened today, I really need to forget it and move on...just like you said."

He gave her a thumb up and nodded.

"Count on me, I will be there." He told her.

"Thank you." She said as she felt better already. Mila had to smile peacefully at how supportive Zack was being to her just now. She wanted this side of him to go further.

"I think you can really help me in getting over this mess. You, also, make me feel...happy." She declared.

"Hey, making people, around me, smile is my specialty..." Zack said. He then comically darkened his look and began to sulk, as he was aware of a some people actually not being able to stand him, despite his attempts to entertain them. "...or, at least, that's what a few think."

Despite his little doubts, Mila kept being positive as she still smiled.

"Well, for me, this specialty of yours works. I don't care what the others might think. So...see you tomorrow?" She asked with a wink.

That made Zack smiled widely and nodded. Afterwards, the two waved at each other and the DJ walked away while Mila returned to her house. And both, somehow, were feeling excited for the day after when they'll see each other again.


	4. Chapter 3

Mila and Zack were sparring in the ring in the gym like usual while feeling happy. Zack spun and snapped both fingers, before pointing confidently at the MMA champ with a smirk.

"How could you guess? The moment you decided to do this with me, there wasn't even a need to say it." He said.

"Fine. So I suppose, we should really take it up and notch. Let's go!" She responded as she smiled.

But before any of the two could even think about proceeding with their bout... the loading-clank of a gun was heard. Mila froze in her tracks as she slowly turned her head to the direction from where she heard the sound of bullets being loaded into a weapon. She saw the very person, that made her entire blood freeze together. It was her brother... Mark. And he was pointing with his pistol in her direction, ready to shoot a hole through her chest. Just as he smiled in crazy way...the noise was heard and the bullet began leaving the gun and heading straight to Mila's chest like a missile. But, before it could penetrate in her body, Zack grabbed her and pushed her away in the last second. This resulted in him getting shot in his chest instead of Mila. Just as she was on the ground, she dared to look at the direction to where Zack was supposed to be next to her...and she saw him...on the ground bleeding a lot from his chest and very close to die. And she couldn't help, but to look shocked before screaming his name in despair.

Her screaming was followed with her abruptly opening her eyes and waking up. It was just a nightmare.

Cold sweat was running down her face, as she brushed one of her hands through her hair, only to then quickly stand up and go to the bathroom and freshen herself up with some cool water. She looked at herself in the mirror, before wiping the sweat off of her forehead.

"We better shouldn't go to the gym tomorrow... I think my brother knows, that I will and-"

She then stopped and she remembered the words he said when she was captured, along with Zack. The fact that his spy managed to discover where she apparently lived other than knowing that she worked in that diner.

"No no, that can't be true. He doesn't know what I do! And I don't think he knows where I go to train. And remember what Zack told you, forget him…and move on."

She then used an hypothesis that Mark most likely was arrested by the police as a sign to cheer herself up. She let out a long sigh before leaving the bathroom and returning to her bed, as it was still night. She sat on it and stared at her entire room for a while as her mind wasn't completely freed of anxiety of what Mark could have in mind, if what he stated to her was true. She did her best to calm down and resumed sleeping. And to her luck, fell asleep again... but was that even luck?

The next day, Mila was already preparing her training MMA stuff in her backpack and headed to the gym. She remember her agreement with Zack to each other there in the morning, so this might be the perfect opportunity to go and train, just so that she could forget her brother for a while.

"Time for some training. I hope Zack doesn't get late." She thought.

But after having taken her stuff with her and she finally arrived at the gym... she saw Zack, on the other side of the gym, sitting on a bench with casual clothes instead of his Muay Thai gear. She felt surprised after seeing him there. She couldn't help but noticing that he sure was punctual.

"Zack? You're already here?" She said as she approached him.

Zack turned his head to see her and smiled before waving her and standing up from the bench.

"Hey, good morning, Mily! Yeah, I was here ten minutes ago."

This comment made Mila feel once more surprised before felt kinda fired up as she wanted to have a sparring match with him.

"That's cool! So...are you ready for some sparring?"

That question made Zack raise his eyebrows in confusion before chuckling nervously.

"Uhh...sorry, Mila. I didn't bring my training clothes. I didn't know that by meeting each other here, you meant that." He said.

Mila comically looked at him with slit eyes and spoke in a sulky tone. "...Dork. I infected you with my forgetting-syndrome."

The DJ had to chuckle.

"Probably. But maybe not completely…I just need to get used to how you like to spend time." He told her.

Mila sighed in a relaxed way before then feeling a little bit annoyed. Because with Zack not bringing his training gear to have a sparring match with her...meant that she had to train alone.

"Hey look, if you want, I can quickly return back to my house and-"

"No no, it doesn't matter. As long as you still keep me company...It's alright to me." She told him.

Despite her training on her own, the fact that Zack was at least present, keeping her company, was more than enough for her personally. At this point, somehow, it motivated her to keep on exercising, with Zack watching, so her cheeks got a light shade of pink, because of this.

"At least... you are watching over me... should something happen. You proved it to me, yesterday..."

Zack showed simply a smirk as a response before sitting on the bench again. Mila began walking into the changing rooms for the females to change herself into her MMA gear. The change was slow, because, after what happened the day before, still didn't leave her mind. She just couldn't stop thinking of what her brother told her after he kidnapped both her and Zack.

"That was one of my henchmen. A spy, so to speak. He is supposed to follow every single one of your steps, until he reached place you apparently live in."

Those words echoed in her brain, as she still feared that he could do something very stupid. She began thinking that he could barge into her house and destroy everything while she was outside...or he could find out the gym she currently was and do exactly what she dreamed. She didn't know if Mark could go this far...but at the same time it gave her anxiety.

"Forget him, Mila...pretend that this accident never occurred..." She said to herself as she finally finished gearing up.

She walked back to where Zack was...and upon seeing her, Zack stood up with a slight hint of concern due to Mila's uneasiness returning to her. He put his hand on one of her shoulders, before brushing across it with his hand.

"Whatever it is, that you're thinking... better forget it now, it's better this way." He said.

His touch made Mila's cheeks redder still, but she knew, he was right... he must have somehow sensed, that something was wrong with her.

"How did you...?"

"All I have to do is look in your eyes and they will immediately tell me, if you're lying to me or not. It's THAT simple with you." He told her.

Despite Zack knowing that she wasn't feeling like she usually was, she still felt uneasy...but at the same time, she tried to hide it.

"Don't worry about me, though. I may not feel completely happy...but this cannot stop me from training my body." She said.

Zack attempted to show a smile to her in attempt to relieve her, but it failed as she was actually serious in that moment. She approached a punching-bag nearby and started jabbing against it. Zack watched her doing this, as he then shrugged and returned to sit down on the bench. While she kept throwing her strong punches and kicks, Zack began playing some games on his phone to pass time, after watching her going all out at the beginning. But after a while...he had to stop playing with his phone after hearing loud battle cries coming from her. He could see that she was getting angry while attacking the punching bag. Almost everyone else around them looked at the female Spanish in confusion. This didn't seem to mind Mila one bit. Zack could sense that now she was really acting strange.

"Mark...you...!" She said while looking at the punching-bag, despite, in her vision, she was seeing her hated brother.

She resumed punching the box-sack with absolute force, to the point that she was almost about to lose her mind. Her coach immediately intervened, before Zack could, and began holding Mila from attacking the box-sack again.

"Mila, snap out of this!" The coach said.

And for some reason, she was quick to snap out of her rampage on the box sack, as she then looked around and had to ask in a confused way.

"Wait a minute... what did just happen...?! What did I do?" Mila questioned in a shocked away.

"It's OK, calm down. You only lost control of yourself for a moment there, but it seems, you are fine now. Still, whatever it is, that you are feeling in this moment... better take my advice and cool down first, because training in bad shape like this, is a little counterproductive." The coach explained before tapping her shoulder and walked away.

The MMA champ, after realized that she went in a rampage and was losing control, sighed depressed and sat at the edge of the ring behind the ropes. She could hear footsteps coming right closer to her. It was Zack who approached her and this time he really looked concerned and sat down next to her.

"Let me guess...it's your brother, eh?" He asked.

She was in silence...and that was more than enough for Zack to understand that what he guessed was true.

"Why can't you try to forget him for a second? I know that I said that I will help you...but I'm not always there with you, you know. Somehow you'll have to try to get over it yourself." He added.

Mila looked at him with a neutral look.

"You think it's very easy? How can I get over him entirely when this accident that just happened yesterday night...just when I thought he would never go this far with that beef he had with me years ago...and when he just sent one of his goons to spy on me and figuring out what I do and where I live! I even got a nightmare where he...he-"

Since Zack was the one to save himself AND Mila from Mark, he could predict, what she was about to say, so he put his hand over hers to try and calm her down, before she could even start losing control once more and he looked at her in seriousness again.

"I get it... you are probably afraid of not only your well-being, but also of mine, since it was me, who got us out of this mess in the first place. But, hehe... if he wants to get rid of me too now, it won't be easy. I may not look like it, but attempting to erase me from existence would require a lot more than just a few insults and empty threats like the ones he spat at the two of us." He assured her.

These words were suddenly already making Mila feel a little bit better. She was pleased the fact that someone was showing support for something personal like her issue with her brother. But then she had to look a bit gloom again because she feared that Mark could be unpredictable and have some dirty tricks in mind, or that he, and his goons, could even have guns to threatened her. She might knew how to defend herself from people who would try to attack her with bare hands...but when it came to people with firearms, it was a different situation. And she didn't know if Zack had to deal with people with guns or not.

"Look how about this: Forget this problem right now...and focus on training. And after you're done...I'll first drive you to your house, so that you can quickly check if nothing strange happened in there. And then...how about we go to my house tonight, so then I can help you more in trying to get over this problem of yours?" Zack suggested.

Now Mila really felt surprised. She felt her happiness and her optimistic demeanor growing back, even if not completely yet. She never would have imagined that Zack cared about her like this. And so without even thinking too much, she hugged him.

"Zack, I appreciate for how you're helping me, really."

Zack first hesitated. But then he returned the embrace, while a satisfied grin began to form on his lips. He also had to admit, that... unlike all the other girls, so far, Mila slowly but surely, proved to him to be one of a kind... but he had to put this thought on aside, as Mila had to train now. And thanks to his encouraging words, the MMA champ was already back in action, as she started punching a new box-sack, with Zack keeping a good eye on her. This time, Zack could see that Mila was more focused on the training and her thoughts about Mark were slowly going away...but not entirely. Sometimes she had to stop whenever she felt a bit uneasy again. But when she thought about Zack's words and how he showed all his support, she found her fighting spirit rising again. The DJ followed her whenever she went to do another type of training like lifting dumbbells, doing push-ups and so on. After a few hours passed, Mila decided to stop as she felt satisfied with the result. Zack went to check her conditions.

"Everything going ok?" He asked.

She panted in exhaustion before looking at him with a smile. "Yes...and I must admit: your presence and will to help me, made my training even more thrilling than the other times. Thanks, Zack!"

Zack had to feel very happy on the inside. The fact that finally someone, aside from Niki, was really showing approval in his presence… and not being annoyed like how some other people do, most of the times, due to his usual silly attitude. He felt that he finally did another good thing, other than when he saved Helena Douglas's life. He was going through a more lonely phase, ever since Helena set him free from work for a while, but now... with Mila beginning to put all her faith in him, for having saved her life, he had to grin to himself.

"Guess getting called off from work by Mrs. Douglas wasn't such a bad idea after all..."

But then he realized, he accidently said that out loud and Mila heard it unfortunately. And now he feared, she might misunderstand his thoughts and declare him as a perv, but... now he realized, Mila wasn't the aggressive type of girl. And with her acting naive again, she had to ask, while looking at him with innocent eyes.

"Zack, are you alright?" She questioned.

"Oh! Yes, yes, I am! Sorry, seems my lonely phase seems to get the best of me sometimes and I end up talking to myself, hehehe..." Zack said while nervous sweat ran down the sides of bald head, fearing the worst. But he then sighed in relief, as Mila began to smile once more, in a forgiving way.

"We all have moments, where our weakness gets exposed, no need to apologize." She said.

Hearing this from her, made his fondness for her grew even more. He could notice that Mila was different from the other ladies he encountered. She kinda reminded him of Hitomi for some reasons. He then accompanied her at the corridor, where it leaded to the changing room for the females. Afterwards, Zack went out of the gym to wait for her to come out. It took a little while for her to arrive. And there she was, again dressing in her casual clothes and with her bag with the training stuff inside.

"About time. Did something happen that made you take this long?" He asked.

"Well, I couldn't find you. You could have told me first that you were about to wait for me outside of the gym." She responded.

Zack raised his eyebrows before chuckling nervously as she was right. But surprisingly to him, Mila was not mad for something like this. If anything...she simply chuckled as well.

"Ok, now I guess I REALLY infected you with my forgetting-syndrome, eh?" She said as she joked.

Zack then laughed. "The longer I stick with you, the more your claim wins credibility."

He then noticed Mila looking exhausted. But all he had to do now was to simply go quickly to her house to check if everything was ok in there, as well as leaving her backpack in there. So that she would not be stressed for the rest of the day. He made a gesture to her to follow him on the car and they jumped in.

"Ok, then. First we shall go to your house so that you can leave your stuff in there, and check if nothing terrible happened while you were here. And then...we shall go to my house. Something tells me, you'd like to know, how a silly person like me lives, eh?" He asked with a smirk.

She widely smiled and already proved to be excited for this.

"I AM curious, alright. So... what are we waiting for?"

"Nothing... as we are off NOW!"

And with that, he immediately speeded off in a flash, to let Mila check out her own apartment to see through, if something happened... but after she looked through everything and she put her stuff back into her room, she felt relieved as the house was exactly how she left it when she headed to the gym in the morning. All of her anxiety about what could have happened now that Mark was there, simply began to decrease as she felt much better now. She locked the door and returned to Zack's car again. The DJ could see that the happiness in Mila's face didn't fade away when she was returning. And once she jumped back inside the car, Zack smirked at her.

"So I take it that everything is ok in there, like I suspected?"

"Yup. You were right...I shouldn't worry too much."

That was music in his ears. As a sign of celebration, he put on some funky music on the radio while he drove to his house. While doing so, he raised the volume of the music while he danced his head at the right rhythm and even singing to the song at the same time. However, while doing this, he could barely hear Mila saying anything. And so, to understand what she was saying, Zack turned down the volume a little.

"Were you saying something?" He questioned.

"Y-Yeah...could you please not raise the volume this high? I'm not very used, you know..."

Zack then comically looked at her in a sulking way.

"Sorry, didn't know that. Hope I will not forget this little problem the next time you are with me here…otherwise I'd become like you in forgetting things. "

"Oh but in my book, It's already official that you are like ME now." She said while smiling.

"...which i don't mind, if I want to be honest."

Both started laughing together as they made their way to Zack's residence. Watching the destination from a distance, already made Mila raise her eye-brows, as they were now standing in front of a huge and expensive-looking penthouse. Her jaw dropped in astonishment.

"So this is where YOU live?" She asked with absolute surprise.

Without having second thoughts, he wrapped one arm around her shoulders as well as looking at his house too.

"Yep. Incredible, eh? I bet, on the inside, you'll like it more." He told her as he exited the car and Mila did the same as she followed him. The DJ took, from his pocket, his keys and began opening the door...before looking at Mila.

"...Welcome to paradise, Mily!" He said as he opened the door.

Mila walked inside and her astonishment grew even more than before. She could see, how expensive this entire apartment looked on the inside... she could see a huge TV, about as big as one from a little cinema, one huge sofa in the middle with a little table in front of it. And this was only the living room. As Zack showed her the entire apartment in every corner, everything looked like Zack had seemingly never feared high expenses. The bath-tub looked like if five people could fit in it and once she got to see Zack's bedroom, it got the same thing like the bath-tub. Multiple people could be worn by this huge bed and it wouldn't snap an inch... this how impressive the architecture looked.

"So...what do you think?" Zack asked with a smirk.

Upon hearing that question, Mila simply turned slowly around to see him, revealing her shocked yet happy look. She felt very incredulous that this entire apartment was Zack's house.

"Zack...this entire house looks like if I'm in a club, like where we were yesterday, or something! It's totally awesome!" She said in excitement.

"Hehehe, I'm rich here. What did you expect?"

"I bet all the people, your friends, that spent their time here before me...felt excited and had a lot of fun here!"

That comment, however, made Zack feel a little bit said as he looked elsewhere.

"Actually no, Mila. If I have to be honest...you're the first person that has ever set foot here, other than myself."

Mila looked surprised upon hearing that.

"Believe it or not, it's up to you, but... I am a loner here, whenever I do nothing."

"Oh... sorry, didn't mean to bring that up now..." Mila said.

"No biggie, I am used to this, ever since my island got destroyed... I wanted to remain out of public for a while and I ended up spending the rest of my cash in this entire penthouse-apartment..." He said.

He walked back in the living room, while Mila stared at his bedroom for a while. Despite her full admiration of the entire penthouse...she felt confused upon hearing Zack mentioning a destroyed island. She remembered once hearing something similar on the news years ago...but they never explained who were the people involved. So this meant that Zack was there. She wanted to know more...however, something told her that it was better not, for the moment. She followed Zack, afterwards, in the living room and she saw him turning on the TV.

"Hey Mila! I'm putting some program here, at the TV. But at the same time, would you like to do something else just to kill time? I got plenty of things that we could do together here!" He said while looking at him with a wide smile.

"If you have a really good suggestion for whatever we shall watch, count me in." Mila responded as she smiled back and winked.

Zack comically ran to the kitchen and looked for proper snacks. "Alright, but wait a sec, I will be right back with the snacks. Get comfy and enjoy the show."

Mila giggled at this. She went over to sit on the huge couch. Once she did, she couldn't feel more relaxed than how she was right now, at how comfortable it was. After a while, Zack returned while bringing a plate with snacks as well as fruit juices. He carefully walked towards where Mila was...before he sadly stumbled, just as he was close. Fortunately, Mila noticed immediately.

"Watch out!" She shouted.

And before the DJ could accidentally overthrow the stuff...she grabbed the plate and Zack to prevent both him and the rest to fall down. Both stared at each other as they panted in exhaustion and somehow, also a bit of nervousness.

"T-Thanks, Mila."

"Hehehe, no problem. Just be more careful next time."

And with that, the two sat down and played the movie that Zack chose to watch. As the movie played out, slowly but surely, Mila began to feel so cozy, to the point, where she slowly started leaning her head against Zack's shoulder. And the two remained in that position as they kept watching the movie, until Zack slowly started to turn his head to see Mila cuddling up close to him. He had to smirk and then chuckle. After hearing the chuckling, Mila's eyes shot wide open as she snapped out of it and her entire face turned a deep shade of red and she comically lifted herself away from the Muay Thai fighter, shaking her hands frantically in defense.

"I am sorry! I am sorry! Didn't mean to touch you like that, I swear!" She quickly apologized.

But all she received after her attempt to apologize was a happy laugh from the DJ.

"Hahahahaha! Why are you apologizing? I didn't feel disturbed or what you might think! If anything...I found it enjoyable at how...cute, you looked, for a hot tomboyish girl like yourself!" He said.

When Zack said the words "hot" and "cute" in the same context, she felt like she was going to faint away, as she then comically fell back on the couch with her red face remaining red like a tomato. Zack slowly started to comically panic.

"Oh my god! What did I do wrong this time?!" Zack said shocked.

He was met with no response. Zack stood up from the couch and approached Mila closely to see if she was still alright.

"Mila...?" He whispered.

He could see her with wide eyes looking at the attic. She still was shocked at how Zack complimented her. The DJ was concerned because normally when he called women he liked, "cute" or "hot"...they would either tease him or simply giggle at him. He was unware that Mila, unlike other girls he met, was not used at being called like this, and it wasn't like her to be the type of aggressive woman, despite her being an MMA fighter. So, she simply felt speechless… and happy at the same time. She looked at him still in shock and with that deep blush on her cheeks.

"Y-You...really m-mean it...? Nobody has ever said that...like this to me..." She said.

This made Zack breath up in relief to see Mila being still in good shape and watching her actually being happy, that she was complimented just now by him, formed a smile on his lips too. For once, no teasing, because of him saying something. She returned to sat on the couch and Zack soon joined her and both resumed watching the movie. While watching the film, which was also an action martial arts one, since judging by how constantly Mila trained, the DJ got a feeling that she might enjoy these kind of movies. He guessed right as Mila liked the movie...but little did he know that half of her excitement was also for the compliment he just gave her. Also, as they watched the movie, both ate the snacks and drank some of the fruit juices that Zack brought.  
After the movie finally ended it, Mila felt satisfied and stated that she loved it and Zack felt pleased at this. Since there was still time, the DJ decided to do other things in order to pass time. He brought her to a part of the living room where there was a table to play billiards. Zack stated that playing billiards was his favorite pass time. Sadly Mila was not an expert at playing the game, but still she decided to try. So the two went to play it...and it soon resulted in Zack winning the game, despite his help in trying to explain to Mila how to place the stick. She chuckled after losing.

"Oh well, I guess you're better than me at this game." She said.

"But I can feel that the more we'll play the next times you might be here again, the more you get used to it...and you will, one day, beat me. We will see." He responded.

Then, Zack decided to really show his silly side to her...or at least that's what he always thought. He asked her to sit on a chair that was nearby and she did so. Then, he went to the stereo and put on some funky music...and he then began dancing in an acrobatic way as well as performing something like the breakdance. Mila didn't see all this as "silly" in any way... on the contrary, she was seriously impressed at how well Zack can dance. She even stood up and offered to join him in the dance in which he immediately accepted. Even though, dancing was not her style, she didn't care and simply wanted to have fun, despite her hard time in trying to keep up with him.  
The two went for a little dance together, until both realized, it was already really late... how quick times passes by. And she was the first to stop dancing and she then went to sit down and relax first from the heated, passionate dance with Zack.

"Hmmmm... this was all very fun and all... but now I am so tired..." She said as she felt sleepy.  
Zack sighed in a tired way as he admitted that she had a point.

"You're right. So, let's get back to the car and-"

"Zack...I'm very tired to even walk..." She said before letting her body fall on the ground.  
Luckily Zack caught her in time.

"Hey, easy there! Uhh...Sooo, where are you getting at?" He asked.

She let out a sleepy smile as she rested the side of her head on his shoulder.

"Is that fine to you...If I sleep here...? Are there more beds other than yours here...?"

Zack had to brush his hand behind the back of his head and chuckled.

"Didn't you see it? The bed of mine is so huge, that about six people could fit on it." He told her.

Mila had to blush again to herself, because of the idea of her sleeping with another person in the same room... not to mention, on the same bed.

"OK... but please... simply let me sleep there..." She tiredly said.

"Sure thing."

He helped her walking towards the bedroom, due to her being too tired to even walk normally. And once they arrived at the room, Mila let her back fall on the huge comfortable bed and felt much better already as she sighed in a relaxed way. Zack had to feel a bit turned on at this...before raising his eyebrows in surprise. Since this was unexpected...Mila did not have her pajamas as she didn't bring them.

"Oh, Mila...how are you going to sleep without your-"

"It doesn't matter, Zack. I'll simply take off my jacket, shoes and jeans."

Zack's jaw almost dropped at the thought of it as he turned around and felt a lot happy on the inside...the mere thought of sleeping with an attractive girl like this...even though he will have to man up and try not to act like a perv… or else, everything that went good so far would be ruined. However, Mila giggled a little, when she noticed Zack turning around.

"Hehe… I know what you're thinking, Zack."

Once Zack heard that, he knew, that disappointment awaited him. Since he should have kind of foreseen this to turn out like that. But on the other hand, he was positively surprised... she seemed to be proper, unlike other women he had met thus far.

"Just wait... let me just kick off my socks and my jacket..." She said.

"OK then... fair enough." He replied.

This reaction of his didn't leave a negative impression on Mila either. She actually first expected him to flirt with her and wait for her clothes to fall off, so that he can have his ways with her... but again, like most of the times, he didn't present himself in a bad light. Once Mila was finished and was prepared to sleep, Zack began staring at her like it seemed forever. Mila, of course, blushed a little...but at the same time she found it funny at the way he kept staring at her.

"Umm… Zack?"

After hearing her voice, Zack snapped out and returned to the current situation.

"Oh, s-sorry! Hehehe, forgive me...I just can't help it, you know? I'm pervy asshole..."

Mila had to giggle once more, but she didn't like the fact that he insulted himself like this. Especially for someone who appeared so nice, despite being silly. Zack then told her that he'll change himself quickly in the bedroom and she nodded.  
Upon returning, Zack noticed that Mila was already sleeping purely. He had to watch with a confident smile. He silently climbed into the bed and he could see her eyes closed as she slept. He was, also, without his sunglasses, so he could see her clearly. He had a little conflict, on his mind, about if he could embrace her...or not doing anything that could give her a wrong idea about him. In the end...the second option won and so, the DJ finally slept alongside the female MMA fighter.


	5. Chapter 4

The morning finally came and it was time to wake up. Mila, who slept without having any nightmares, slowly opened her eyes and smiled peacefully. She could see the light of the sun from the window, it seemed to her if all of her issues she had were finally gone…even though she knew it wasn't really like that. Once she looked on her right, she noticed that Zack was not still there beside her. It gave her the feeling that he must have woken up before she could. She stretched and gave a relaxed moaning before she stood up from the bed and put on her socks as well as putting back her jeans, shoes and jacket. She looked at the clock and noticed that it was 11:00 am. She felt satisfied at this as she could tell that this sleep was worth it. She began walking towards the living room…only to notice Zack, wearing a white tank top, as well as wearing black pants and fitting shoes. He was preparing breakfast for both him and Mila on the table that was in a part of the living room. He heard her footsteps and so, he looked at her and smiled. Mila was also surprised because she saw his true eyes again, since that accident with her brother, as he was without his sunglasses.

"Good morning to you, Mily. Slept well?" He asked with a smile. He didn't even seem to mind that she noticed him without his sunglasses.

Mila, still looking sleepy, smiled and followed him. She sat on the chair.

"Morning, Zacky." She said.

Zack could only chuckle at the way she just called him.

"Zacky?"

"You don't like this nickname I just gave you?" She said in confusion.

"No no, of course I like it! I mean, nobody ever called me with nicknames before...well, except someone, but that's another thing. I'm simply flattered!" He said as he finished putting the milk on both cups. He then went quickly on the kitchen to bring a cereal box.

"Milk and cereal. I thought you might be ok with it. I don't really know how you have breakfast in the morning. " He said as he finished preparing and sitting on the chair in front of her.

"Hehehe, well normally in the morning I make this quick since most of my days I go to the gym first, to train my body…and then going to work at the diner. And then, once more, training at the gym."

Zack was baffled at hearing the way Mila spent her days most of the times. But Mila could see that and she chuckled.

"Yeah, I know you might say that I kinda over exaggerate in doing this. Almost all of my fellows at the gym tell me that. But I just can't help it…I'm doing the best I can to realize my dream. And that is to meet and fight the one and only…Bass Armstrong. And my loss at the tournament meant to me that I need to train harder…If I couldn't even win at the quarter finals. "

Zack remained in silence and simply began to smear some of the cereals he took, on the milk to then eat. Mila, at first thought he didn't listen to her, but then thought that maybe he didn't know what to say…and so she took this as sign to now quit talking and have breakfast.

"I like how you're doing your best to make this dream of yours a reality. You kind of remind me of myself in the past…when I had that dream in becoming rich…which I then realized it." He said all of sudden after eating.

This got all of Mila's attention.

"Maybe you're right on the fact that you would need to train harder. But know that…after first facing you in the ring…and then once more the other day, you have A LOT of potential. I can only bet that if a new tournament is announced, you'll do way better than in the 5th one." He told her with a wink.

The blush returned in her as she comically tried to pretend she didn't got what he said as she tried to eat the cereals as well as drinking milk. But then she had to give in and looked at the DJ with her cheeks still being red.

"Is this an habit of yours in giving these compliments?" She asked with a smug.

"Hahaha, well sometimes yes…but I really mean it, since you proved it to me." He responded.

The two finally decided to stay quiet and have breakfast peacefully. Although, most of the times, Zack stared at her with a smirk. And seeing that smirk with his eyes fully visible, made Mila have a different reaction than the other times. She had to giggle, before comically telling him to stop it since it kind of 'distracted' her. Zack questioned what were to be focused on if they were simply having breakfast…and afterwards the two laughed in a happy way.  
After finally finishing, with Zack quickly doing the cleaning, the two fighters decided to rest a little by sitting on the couch. The DJ put the TV on and Mila suggested him to put the sports program. Zack agreed and upon putting the program, there was a wrestling match between two nameless wrestlers and were both succeeding in entertaining the crowd with their skills. The DJ could see how pleased Mila was feeling at watching this since, despite being a MMA fighter, she loved pro wrestling.

"Tell me, Mila…have you ever felt love with someone before?" Zack questioned while still watching the TV with her.

The female MMA fighter, could only wide her eyes in surprise. Somehow, she was feeling strange…but then she shook her head while looking at him.

"No I didn't…and you? "

"I did. I had a girlfriend in the past named Niki."

"How did you two broke up?" Mila asked.

Zack could only sigh. He still remembered how it happened. He wanted to forget it…but since Mila was curious to know, he decided to say it.

"It has been two years...she left me because..." But then he froze as what he was about to tell might make Mila having a hard time to believe it.

"You may think I'm saying bullcrap…but it's the truth. First of all, did Tina ever tell you about her times in the Zack Island?"

"'Zack Island'? No, what are you talking about?" She said confused.

"She never told you then, eh? Well, ya see...I used to own two private Islands which I called them, of course, 'Zack Island'. I invited all the ladies who entered in the DOA tournaments including Tina herself. This was before the 5th one, remember. Me and Niki were having fun in there alongside the others. Until..."

He sighed once again and Mila looked at him with concern. She could tell where this was going.

"…Until tragedies occurred. One was destroyed after a volcano unexpectedly erupted…I managed to survive for miracle. The other one, in a way similar. A meteorite shower hit the island. Fortunately Tina, and the other ladies, were already away, but I was still there… and I was about to die. Niki took an helicopter to rescue me. I climbed the rope ladder, but it broke and I fell...but, luckily I survived by some 'people' I earlier made a deal with. Some days after, I had a lot of arguments with Niki since I lost everything I had in the Island including her stuff. And so.. in the end...she left me." He finished explaining.

Mila gasped in shock and put her hands on her mouth. She felt incredulous. She was sitting next to someone who risked to die twice but managed to survive. And at the same time, she began feeling sorry for him about the fact that his ex-girlfriend left him for this accident.

"So it was YOU, the one who risked to die!? I remember watching the news on the TV, years go…but I never understood who were the victims. You sure had to suffer a lot…" She said.

Then, Mila gently put her hand on his shoulder as he looked at him with a sad smile.

"And I'm also sorry about your ex-girlfriend…" She added with a sad look on her face.

Zack broke his sad smile after he chuckled as he felt pleased and a little bit flattered that someone, for the first time, was actually feeling sorry for him.

"Do not worry. My depression was about to fully taking over me, after I found out that Helena Douglas, my boss, had a crush on a Russian weirdo that works, alongside me, with her…since I was starting to have feelings for her. But I had to deal with it…and your presence is already making me feel better than I was before. I like how you don't seem to be bothered in my presence despite my little flaws…"

Mila returned to smile, and despite blushing, she felt honored by his words. But then she had to chuckle.

"And I can say the same thing to you about the fact that sometimes I tend to be forgettable about a few things. And like I thought yesterday, I might have infected you. " She said before laughing.

"And I think It could be useful to make me forget these past issues!" He responded before laughing together with her.

Then Mila watched the clock again and now it was time, for her, to go to work at the diner.

"Zack, I got to go to the diner." She said as she stood up from the couch.

"No worries, my dear. The taxi driver is here for you! And, of course, you don't need to pay anything." He joked as he stood up as well.

Mila laughed at his joke before the two prepared their stuff, went out and jumped inside the car. While going, everything seemed peaceful, like if all the mess with her brother, Mark, never happened in the first place. Mila hoped that it would stay this way and that her insane brother would never try to assault her again. After a while, they arrived at destination and Zack, once again, stopped at the entrance of the diner. He started to smirk as he looked at her.

"What do you say? A big sparring match between you and I in the ring at the gym, after you're done here? ... And this time I won't forget to bring my training clothes." He said as he chuckled.

"You bet! And this time I won't hold back." She happily responded as she felt excited.

Zack had to smirk proudly as this meant to him, that Mila finally overcame her past with her hated brother. And now she was trying to forget about him.

"That's what I like to hear!"

"Yeah! See you later, then." She said as she stroked his shoulder before getting out of the car and going inside the diner to start working.

Zack smiled before driving off. However, he wasn't sure what to do, now, before he returned to pick up Mila. He decided to give a call to Helena to see if she had other tasks for him to do. However, once Helena answered the phone and spoke to Zack, she said that she still was with no tasks to give him and that Zack was still free to do anything. After they hang up, Zack sighed as he kept driving with no specific destination. He started to feel a bit thirsty, and so he stopped near at the entrance of a bar to get some drink...only to then notice two familiar figures who were about to leave. He was surprised upon seeing them.

"Brad! Stop drinking too much for once!"

"Hey kiddo...! It helps me, you know..."

The DJ had to chuckle. The two were none other than the drunk fighter, Brad, and the British fighter, Eliot. He exited the car to approached the two and to make them notice him.

"Hahahaha! Hey, look what we have here! Hehehe, where have you two been? Arguing all day?" Zack asked.

The two finally turned their heads to see the DJ standing right at them with fold arms and with that usual smirk.

"Hello, Zack. How's it going?" Eliot asked in a polite way.

"Heeey, Zack. I'm glad I ran into you...would you like me to kick your ass again...?" Brad said as he then resumed drinking.

Zack chuckled in a dirty way. Everything made him remember of when Brad found him on the ground in front of the diner and began having a little argument before the two fought. It kinda felt a deja-vu for the DJ.

"Well, aside from the fact that I WAS the one who kicked your ass that day, no thank you, as I need to conserve my strength for later...drunk." He said.

Brad already felt challenged by this remark and the way Zack was speaking to him, as he slowly put the bottle away and began doing his fighting stance.

"Oh yeah...? Then let me return the favor, ok...?" Brad said.

However, Zack refused to take on Brad like this as he didn't really feel like fighting him. Before Brad could do something, Eliot blocked him, thus preventing him to attack. And the young British boy, had no choice but to make Brad fall to the ground with a Kung-Fu throw, but without hurting him so much. Brad sighed before crawling a bit. That made Eliot face palm before looking at Zack.

"So, what brings you guys here in New York?" Zack asked.

"Well, after I lost in the tournament, me and Brad returned back in China where I spent weeks in trying to learn a new fighting technique with my master." Eliot responded.

"Aaand then, we decided to have break by returning here." Brad said as he interrupted.

Zack nodded. He also had to chuckle a little because seeing the two arguing sometimes was amusing in his eyes.

"How about you, Zack?" Eliot questioned.

The black DJ was feeling proud of himself as he started to explain his current situation just after the 5th Dead Or Alive tournament was over. He began explaining his decision to return to a certain gym and meet Mila again. Both Eliot and Brad were confused when Zack mentioned her name, and so the DJ began explaining how she looked, the way she fought and the fact that she was one of the competitors of the tournament, just like Eliot. The young British fighter's eyes widened in shock after Zack described who Mila was.

"What a sec. You're telling me that you're spending time with THAT girl?" He asked.

"Quite a cute couple I must say. An annoying goofball...with someone who forgot to give me my drink!" Brad remarked.

Zack felt confused upon hearing that from Brad. Eliot noticed that and so he started to explain what exactly happened that day when the 5th tournament was announced: They were travelling in the city, and Brad followed Mila to her gym, as he was still waiting for his drink at the diner. Eliot entered the gym as well before Mila got angry at him because he 'barged' inside. The two guys, then, fought Mila and Tina in a friendly tag fight in a losing effort.

"...And that's how it happened." Eliot said as he finished explaining.

Zack had to crack a hard chuckle before shaking his head.

"You guys got your asses kicked by Mila AND Tina, eh?"

"Oh yeah? At least it wasn't that much of a humiliation, unlike what you had to bear, pal. " Brad said as he showed a smug.

The host of the tournament stopped chuckling. That made him remember of the way he was treated by Tina…and his secret and hidden grudge he was feeling on the inside about her. He got angry, but in a comical way in order to hide this secret emotion.

"Oh shut the hell up, drunk!"

Brad chuckled while Eliot simply sighed and shook his head. Since Zack didn't know what else he could do, and somehow his own soul was even telling him that he couldn't just buy a new island yet and invite the ladies…since he was feeling that they would all refuse to come due to the hoax he did in the past. And so for a change, he decided to do something different. And that was to spend time with Eliot and Brad. The three had a walk in the streets of New York as well as using Zack's car to go in other places to have fun. This was so different to Zack…and somehow, he liked it. When 4 P.M hit, Zack started to prepare his stuff on the car and smirked. The time to pick up Mila finally came.

"Well, guys, it was fun while it lasted, but I have a girl to pick up now." He said.

"Ok, then. Oh, and tell her that if next time she still doesn't give me my drink...I will kick both of your asses...like a big happy couple." Brad said.

Zack snorted at this as he was already feeling frustrated at the way Brad kept speaking to him. Eliot tapped his shoulder in attempt to cool Zack off.

"Don't listen to him, Zack. Tell her this instead..."

"What?"

"...Tell her that I'm sorry If I barged inside like that. It never was my intention. I...I only wanted some action, since Brad was already having it, that's all."

That totally took off Zack's frustration and returned smiling as he nodded.

"I'll tell her, don't worry." He said.

With that being said, Zack waved both Eliot and Brad before getting in his car and headed back to the diner to pick up Mila. In his mind, he couldn't wait to tell this to her and to also have another good work-out with her.


	6. Chapter 5

After having fun with Eliot and Brad Wong, Zack returned to his car to quickly return home to take his Muay Thai gear, and then headed at the diner to pick up Mila. He couldn't help but to feel pleased with himself. The fact that this time, he didn't have to wait for so long in the boredom for this. He was glad to have ran into the two fighters, despite having to endure Brad's provocations. Now he was ready to really enjoy himself. He stopped at the diner and awaited for Mila to come out. While waiting he put on some soothing, romantic hip-hop on the radio.

"Oh yeah, Mila-baby. I am ready for ya."

And it wasn't too long, until Mila left the diner, waving her crew, and already making her way outside. Zack hit the horn, making her turn around to see him. Once she saw him, she smiled happily as she noticed him waving her from inside the car.

"Hey Zack! And? Ready for what's awaiting us?" Mila happily said as she hopped inside, next to him.

"Well, my bag is behind me, my mood is neutral, my hands are burning with anticipation... is that good enough for an answer?" He questioned with a smirk.

The excitement within her, was taking over.

"Oh, I can tell that you are more than ready! Like myself!" She said.

Then she had to form a smug, after she understood that this time, Zack had his training gear on his bag behind.

"So...I guess I didn't really infect you completely with my forgetting-syndrome. Know what I mean?"

Zack laughed at her joke as he shook his head while starting to drive to head to the gym.

"Maybe? But it's not that you would forget your own training clothes when you go to train in there. Like I told you, I need to get used to how you constantly spend your days...and then maybe you'll see that I will never forget these ''particular'' things, again." He explained before chuckling.

Mila giggled as she smiled peacefully while looking at the road. Zack, then, remembered what Eliot told him… and so he began speaking while driving.

"Mila, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" She asked him while looking with curiosity.

"Do you remember that kid? Eliot?"

She started to look confused as she didn't remember someone who went by the name of 'Eliot'. Sure, she met him and Brad in the gym that day, when the tournament was announced... but she didn't caught his name.

"Eliot? Who?"

Zack raised his eyebrows in surprise. He then started to have suspicious that Eliot might have said a lie to him. But he quickly scratched that, since he knew that Eliot wasn't the type of person to say lies.

"You really don't remember this one blonde young boy, that, as he told me, "barged" inside the gym where you and Tina were busy having a sparring match?"

As soon as he said that, Mila immediately remembered.

"Ah, THAT person! His name is Eliot?"

"Yup. And he also told me, that he wasn't alone... there was also another grey-haired, yet young man with him. The one, who asked for a drink... and his name was Brad Wong." He told her.

Mila reflected as she then nodded. It has been two weeks since that day where she and Tina were having a sparring match in order to be ready for the 5th Dead Or Alive tournament. But then, suddenly, Brad was ''climbing'' into the ropes of the ring and demanded for his drink. Mila's reaction to this was a surprise and a shock one. Because he was the same who was at the diner and kept asking for a drink. He followed her there at the gym…like if he stalked her. Somehow this reminded her of what happened the other day when her brother was planning on capturing her. She immediately focused on forgetting this other event and returned to the other topic.

"So that's how this one guy was called, eh? Interesting... do you know these two personally?" She asked.

"Yeah, I met him and his drunk friend, a few moments ago." He responded.

He then could see her becoming a little bit upset as she still didn't appreciate the way Eliot came inside the gym.

"Hey, you should know that they were simply traveling here in New York before the young boy entered the 5th tournament like you and Tina. And man that drunk guy, Brad... he's always like that, he's an avid drinker! And this could lead him in doing some shitty things. Even I can't stand him sometimes. But the boy, Eliot. He actually told me...that he wants to apologize if he 'angered' you that day. He said that he only wanted some action, so that means sparring, and that's it. It never was his intention to upset someone." He explained.

Mila's head slightly tilted to the side, when she heard that. She felt a little bad about it, with now knowing that Eliot actually wanted to apologize now.

"Oh really? OK... then it will be ME, who will have to apologize as well, for having been a bit rude to him... once you see him again, tell him, Mila said sorry and I gladly accept his apology."

"It's always good to see everything get resolved. " Zack said before showing a smug. "Well then... it's on, baby."

Mila knew what he was talking about now. And the excitement started to return in her. Finally she got to have a sparring match with someone… and not training alone like most of the times. Now she was about to have fun.

"Consider this sparring match, that we're gonna have...a restart of when I put you to the test before the tournament."

Mila nodded and felt determined. She also couldn't help but admire the fact that, despite Zack acting silly, he still was a skilled and tough fighter and could get a bit serious when it was for something like this. She had to admit that he really was something, despite giving the impression of being a joke.

Finally the two arrived at destination. Zack parked the car near the building. The two happily exited the car and took their respective bags with their training gear on the inside. Mila smiled at him.

"Let's get going, Zack! I can't wait to face you once more!" She happily exclaimed.

The DJ responded with a simple chuckle before the two finally entered the gym. And it wasn't long, before the two were already fully clothed, ready for the action, that awaited them in the ring. Zack was faster in changing himself and so he was the first to already be in the ring in his Muay Thai clothes. Then he saw Mila, in her MMA gear, walking into where Zack was…which was the ring. She climbed the ropes and finally now the two were inside the ring. For a warm-up, Zack kneed the air two times, while Mila did a few knee-ups, before punching the air.

"And Mily? Ready?" He asked.

"Ready anytime, Zack." She replied with a wink.

He approached her and offered his fist. She smiled nodded before the two did a fist-bump. Then the two went in their fighting stance and began circling each other. Their smile faded away while doing this and only determination was needed now. Mila remembered that Zack, being a Muay Thai practitioner, was someone who relied more on kicks and knees other than his fists and elbows. So, she had to be careful whenever his legs were about to make contact with her body. She noticed him charging in a fast way and attempted to attack with a double mid-air knee. She managed to realize it sooner, so she succeeded in blocking the two at the right time...even if it made her flinch a little. He then proceeded with a simple tactic, by trying to stun her with a knee hit against her gut. But before that one tactic could even work, she had already ducked to avoid the coming hit. And she circled him, just to wait for the perfect moment to strike him down with all her body-weight, so that she can knee him into the sides... but Zack wouldn't show a weak spot, just for a minute.

"Going for that tactical strategy, eh? Sorry to say this, but it's getting kind of old, baby." He said in his mind.

He succeeded in dodging her attempt tackle, and managed to land a hit on her back with his elbow. That one hit didn't stun her, however, as she quickly turned around to grab him by the head with her hands. She tried to move him to then try to slam him to the ground. Zack didn't give in and used his strength against hers in attempt to break free. He kneed her in her stomach, making her growl a bit in pain, thus freeing himself and then kicking her back. As he did that, he could watch Mila touching her belly and her back as she moaned a little from the pain. Zack was confused since it's not like her to feel like that after two simple hits. He felt careless in that moment and began to feel concerned.

"Man, I don't like when she grunts in pain like that..." He thought.

But this was exactly what she wanted him to do. He kneeled forward to check on her... and then, her eyes lit up before tackling Zack into the ground, beginning to punch him repeatedly in the face from left and right.

"You fell for it!" She said before starting to drive her fists against his face. But Zack only received three full hits. The other ones got blocked and he was quick to free himself from her grip, by kneeing her in the gut, forcing her to roll aside and let him go. He jumped back on his feet and smirked in a dirty way.

"Nice trap there! I give you that!"

She returned his dirty smirk after he said that. She wanted to use this joke just to ''mess'' around for a little while. But now she wanted to get serious. This time it was her to attack. She began jabbing him in all the parts of his chest to him. The DJ simply had to block her fists before trying to figure out a good way to return in advantage. He caught her fist before grabbing her head. He started lifting his right knee to hit her to the side of her hips. She grunted a little as she felt those hits. Then she countered by pushing him forward and land on top of him. After that, she wrapped her legs around his arm and began doing the armbar submission.

"Grr, d-dammit!" He growled.

Not really being familiar in this situation he was in trouble now, in order to escape that submission maneuver as his arm started to pain him. Both struggle in who was going to make it out of there with success and this really made Zack sweat like crazy… until he used all his strength that he had left in the arm, that she had under strong grip. He finally broke free again and rolled across the floor, before jumping back up. But despite having gotten free, his arm did feel a little numb though, because of cramps... but he ignored it and focused on Mila only.

"Yo... that was one fine submission right there... and I thought, that you were planning on seriously breaking my arm." Zack said through his breath.

Of course, that wasn't Mila's intention. Normally, during her regular MMA training session with someone, when it came for armbar submissions, her aim was to simply make the opponent tap out and NOT to break the arm. Still, she was impressed that, even if in a little clumsy way, Zack managed to break free...despite having a lot of trouble in doing just that. She then resumed being focused as Zack was charging at her again. She did the same and soon both found themselves blocking and dodging each other attacks. He managed to put her in trouble as he broke her guard that was busy in blocking. Mila felt shocked as she witnessed Zack turning around and moving his right leg like if a scythe was swinging straight to the top of her head. She successfully grabbed his ankle and tripped him, making him hit the ground. With his foot still on her grip, she began attempting to do an ankle lock. Zack prevented this immediately and pushed her away with his other foot, thus freeing himself again.

"Hey! No more submission moves now, ok? ...Just kidding." He mumbled while panting a little.

Both then jumped back to distance one another, before getting at it again, with each their punches clashing... until Zack broke this struggle, by feinting a knee and then beginning to bombard Mila with gatling kicks, before making her hit the floor hard with one last blow against her hip. She then rolled aside to avoid a coming stomp from the black fighter, before quickly recovering and punching Zack against the gut first, then kicking his ankle and then punching his chin, making him fall back hard. She took advantage, while he was on the ground again, and landed her body on his, to the side, in order to use her knees to knee his hip. Zack grunted in pain a little before trying hard to let her go off him. He placed his right hand on her bare belly, while the other on her shoulder to push her and broke free. He quickly went for other kicks, but Mila managed to block and avoid them with ease, since now she got used to most of his attacks. She grabbed his leg, as he tried to kick, and kneed him in the gut. Despite grunting in pain, Zack still didn't give it and used his other leg to hit her cheek, managing to do so. As soon as that one kick forced her to let her guard down, she was forced to step away, which Zack saw as his chance to strike again. He began punching Mila left and right, stepping forward in a kneeling position, before quickly rising again and thus, uppercutting her under her chin, before kicking her away with one simple roundhouse. She crashed against the ropes as she grunted from that attack she felt but refused to fall to the ground as she actually managed to at least be sitting in one knee. Zack, this time, didn't fall for that little joke she did earlier and instead, he charged again at her. She lifted her head up to see Zack coming right at her, and she quickly avoided a kick that was targeting her full face. The attack barely missed her...and just as Zack looked surprised at that, Mila extended her arm to punch him. He got hit and that made him backflip in mid-air before falling face-first to the ground. However, Mila saw that Zack was still trying to get up.

"He sure has a lot of stamina..." She thought while feeling surprised.

But then, she decided to wait for him to get up, as she wanted to be more fair, and once Zack turned around, he looked at her, while wiping the dripping sweat away from his right cheek with the back of his knuckle, with an exhausted grin, indicating that Mila was in the wrong for once. Zack only refused to show him getting slowly worn out, but he hid it in order to concentrate better, making her respect him even more.

"Last time I checked, you took this beating better than the last one... and that says something." He said.

"And so far, your defense also has become nearly flawless... despite that little clumsiness in trying to get out of my grip, whenever I got you in a submission move..." She responded.

Both maintained their grin while still panting in exhaustion...just as the two got in their fighting stance again, Mila rushed to him and began throwing jabs as well as kicks. All Zack could do, in that moment, was to block all these fast attacks that were targeting his body. She attacked so fast, that Zack barely had a time to counter and so, he then pushed her way, by the shoulders, with his hands. Both stopped for a minute as they looked at each other as well as keep panting.

"Is it me...or this feels like when I first tested your skills...?" He question through his breathing.

Mila simply looked at him with a grin that was formed between her lips while panting.

"So...do you still have what it takes to win? Hehe...that's a very good question isn't it?" He questioned with a chuckle.

Mila could only giggle weakly while still preparing herself. The irony was just there. His comment was very similar to that day when the two first trained together. She still had to concentrate, though...as this looked far more intense and hard unlike last time.

"…Only one way to find out." She said with a wink as she prepared herself.

He smiled back at her...before going all out. This time, it was her that had to defend herself from how hard Zack was now going with his kicks. Some landed a hit on her, thus making her feel the pain, others were either avoided or blocked. However, her tiredness was getting the best of her...and so she got sucked by the gatling kicks from Zack, that were repeatedly hitting her gut. She growled in pain. But, just when she saw Zack throwing one last kick...she snapped and blocked his kick, thus surprising him.

"Now!" She shouted.

She grabbed him, by his waist, and landed on top of him again. Zack was too surprised and tired, to do something to break free. And before he could know, he found his head punched twice by the female MMA fighter. He looked stunned...before seeing her body raising up a little, and preparing one last mount punch. It soon connected on his head.

"Aaaargh!" He yelled in pain.

That last punch he felt...made him lose his strength to go on. The sparring match was finally over...and Zack had been defeated once more by Mila. And ironically, the same way as last time when the two first met. Mila, still on top of Zack, panted a lot from everything she pulled off...same for the DJ, who, was really feeling stunned to the point that he was about to almost lose consciousness.

Mila almost lost consciousness too, due to her tiredness, and she fell on Zack's chest, head-first, with a peaceful, yet exhausted smile. Both remained like that for a few minutes to regain their strength... until Mila, was slowly cuddling Zack all the while without realizing it, as she slowly re-opened her eyes and she saw Zack's face close to hers... which made her comically gasp and quickly back off, away from him... but what made her back off, was Zack having woken up before her, as he was slowly taking off his sunglasses and so the two had to blush real bad, upon realizing the two of them having gotten TOO close.

"I-I...T-That wasn't my intention...! " She exclaimed as she felt awkward.

"What...? About the way you just beat me? Nahh, don't worry...still that pretty much hurt..." He said while chuckling.

"No...I meant..."

She then stopped as she saw him crawling near her and helping her to stand up. She accepted his help...but then she noticed him having trouble before in standing up. And so then it was her to help him.

"Did I overdo it...?" She weakly asked with concern.

"Ouch...! Hehe, no, nothing to worry. This was also what I wanted to see from you. Strong, determined...and ready for everything. Especially for your future fight against Bass. Yes...now I can see that you REALLY have potential to have more luck for the next tournament..." He said as he cleaned the sweat from his sunglasses and putting them back on. "Hard work always pays off, Mily... and you proved it today..."

Mila blushed again, but not in an embarrassed way... the compliment made her heart beat faster in admiration for him.

"Thanks, Zack."

"All in the day's work, Mily..."

She watched him pulling the ropes up, to make her pass to leave the ring. That made her blush even more...it reminded her of the other day, when he opened the door of his car where she needed to sit.

"You really like being a gentleman, don't you?" She told him with a smile as he returned it.

She peacefully passed throw the big space from the ropes, before Zack followed her. They still were pretty tired after this hard sparring session they just had...and so they sat on a bench nearby and Mila took two bottles of water.

"Here." She said as she offered him one of them.

Zack nodded, as he took the bottle slowly from her hand and opened it to take a long sip from it. After having done so, his eyes then fell on Mila... at how she drank the water and how a few drops slowly and even attractively run down her sweat-soaked throat down into her sports top. And watching her move, while her being soaked in sweat, made it even harder for the Muay Thai fighter to not look away... he had to keep watching Mila's physique, admiring everything about it...

"Woooow... she has always been part of my soft spot for women before... but she now deserves a more special place... oh yeah, how sexy..." He thought.

He even took off slowly his sunglasses to have a better look at this. He drank too...but his eyes didn't look away. He just couldn't stop looking at her. Just then...Mila stopped drinking, as she had to catch some air, before she formed a smug. She must have noticed that he kept staring at her. Just as she turned her head to see him...Zack's eyes widened in shock before, abruptly, stopping drinking and coughing a little.

"Oh...*chough* Sorry...!"

He expected her, at first, to become upset because of him going a bit perv in that moment. But, much to his surprise, she giggled at it before closing her eyes and feeling peaceful.

"You make me feel so alive..." She said.

When Zack heard that, his eyes shot open a little... first, she didn't show her ugly side, for him having stared at her attractive looks for too long and secondly, she actually did the complete opposite of what Zack actually expected her to do. And that is actually complimenting him instead. While looking at her innocent look, he couldn't help, but return the smile.

"That's because of you engrossing my life." He said as he felt relieved. "And here I thought that only Bass would make you feel so alive. Or even Tina...considering how your friendship with her grew."

She felt confused upon hearing that. She never was someone to only feel this way with some specific people. She was actually a very friendly person and ANYONE could get her excited...not just her idol.

"You talk as if you didn't do anything so far. Zack...you first got me at the tournament... then you decided to keep me company, you saved me from an issue of mine and now you're willing to help me in feeling like myself again. And you're succeeding! Aren't these reasons more than enough to prove that you're making me feel so good and happy?" She questioned.

Zack felt awkward. She was right on that, and he was almost speechless.

"R-really...? Thanks I guess. Even when we are sparring each other, I make you feel this way?" He asked.

Now Mila really was confused, before chuckling and smiling widely and tapped his shoulder.

"What kind of question is that? Of course! I may have beat you again, but this doesn't mean that you're weak or anything like that! Facing you, as well as facing Tina or other people I have fought, is always a challenge to me! Despite you showing a bit of clumsiness, you're still a tough fighter!" She happily exclaimed.

Zack chuckled. He felt his heart beating quicker as well. The more he talked with Mila and the closer they got as they did... at this point, he had to admit, he couldn't imagine his own life without Mila anymore. It was her, who killed his boredom and the same one, who motivated him to keep on living on a daily basis... she was not like the other women he met…not even like Niki. To him, she was one of a kind.

"Glad to hear that, Mily..." He said as he started to blush a little.

She smiled comfortably at him, before the two resume drinking water for a little while until the bottles were empty. Mila felt satisfied and was feeling like how she always were. She stood up from her bench and stretched her arms while feeling good. She knew that Zack would stare at her now, but she didn't mind.

"Wow...! I'm feeling so good right now! Our sparring match sure was hard! And I enjoyed it! I guess I can call it a day, for now..."

Zack stood up as well and softly places his hand on her shoulder. He didn't feel hesitation in doing that...and Mila could only look at him as they smile.

"Same here. Well, since we feel so complete today, how about we have fun once again with just the two of us like yesterday night? And this time, for a change...how about we spend time at your house? I know it's not as big as mine, but then again...does it really matter?" Zack asked while making this suggestion.

"...count me in for later." She said while winking.

"Then it's decided. Your place. After training."

And then, for the rest of the late afternoon, the two decided to keep their bodies trained through lifting weights, doing sit-ups or doing stretching exercises. Unlike, Mila, Zack had it hard while doing it due to him not being used at training all the time in a gym like Mila normally did. But they eventually ended the evening with one last sip of water from their bottles. Finally it was time to leave the building and have some fun as the two walked into the corridor to get into their respective changing rooms. While walking, both didn't realize that Mila's coach watched how the two were training together...and he had questions about if Mila had found a boyfriend or not.

"Hehe, Zack, I can't help but notice how slow you were going while doing those other exercises." Mila said as she giggled a little while she and Zack walked.

"Yeah, what can I say? I think I still have a long way to go to keep up with your speed, if you know what I mean!" He responded while chuckling with her.

"Oh, I am not THAT quick, come on. Don't tell me, you're already on your butt." She joked.

"As if! Maybe, today isn't my day. After all... watching you as who you are as shell, was also another factor."

When Mila heard that, she comically started to blush, but quickly calmed down and simply looked embarrassed.

"Zack, please... not here..."

Zack raised his hands in defense, gesturing his apology. The two finally arrived at the two doors that leaded to their respective changing rooms.

"Well, see you in a few minutes." He told her.

"Yup." She nodded.

They gave each other a fist-bump, as they entered in the rooms. After a while, once finished taking the shower and then putting back their casual clothes, the two met again in the corridor, wearing their casual clothes and having their training gear on their respective bags. While walking to exit the gym, Zack felt different...in a positive way. This was something that he never did in his whole life...and that was to act ''sane'' and have fun without exaggerating like he normally did. He questioned how did this happened...before coming to the conclusion that, in the end, it was Mila's presence that was preventing him to be hyperactively silly, like he normally was.


	7. Chapter 6

The two were feeling so good after the hard training they had together. And the best thing, for the two, was that the fun was just getting started. Zack suggested earlier that, after the training, he and Mila would spend time at her house…and she, without hesitating, accepted. And now only this remained to complete this wonderful day. They went out and Zack pointed at his car to make Mila notice it.

"Give me your bag. I'll put it in the back of my car next to mine." He said.

Mila smiled and nodded and did what he said. However, after doing so…Zack's positivity had to be put to a halt, after he sensed someone coming closer to the two. But that was actually something…it was a baseball bat swinging at their direction. Fortunately, Zack was quickly enough to pull Mila down and himself to avoid getting hit.

"Hey, watch out!"

"Huh!?"

Just as they got down, the baseball bat hit Zack's car instead of the two. Zack heard the noise and was not pleased at all.

"Hey! Don't you dare hit my car, you prick!"

He stood up and began attacking the person that just tried to ambush them. It was someone that looked like a thug from the streets. Zack easily overwhelmed the thug...before Mila noticed another one showing up behind his car… and she didn't warn Zack in time for that. And so, the DJ felt his head hit by the baseball bat as he fell to the ground.

"Zack!" She shouted in concern.

Mila then saw other thugs arriving. They all looked the same, judging by how they were dressing...except their leader, who showed up, with that dirty grin on his face. She knew who it was...her brother, Mark.

"Hello once more, sister." Her brother said.

"Mark... I should have expected as much...!" She said as she completely lost her positive demeanor and started glaring.

"Oh, but do not worry, I didn't come to START trouble with you. It's the complete opposite actually... I want to end this conflict... by erasing you from existence." Mark threatened.

As he said that, Mila shocked herself and he began cracking his knuckles and gritting his teeth.

"Your poor mommy and daddy will be curious about why their oh-so-beloved Mila is no longer responding to their calls... and oh wait, I know why, because it was ME!" He angrily said.

Mila stood up and felt disgusted. She didn't want to come to this with her own brother...and wanted to find a way to end the conflict without anyone getting hurt.

"Mark, you don't have to do this! How can you take something silly THIS serious? Do you think that our parents really loved me more than you? They never were like this! You just misinterpreted what was happening! Stop being this immature!"

Hearing that made Mark look serious. His buddies looked at him in a confuse way...before her crazy brother started chuckling and then laughing in an evil way.

"I forgot one thing, sis. I no longer give a DAMN about mom and dad! This life I'm living...is MUCH better! These guys right here...are my TRUE family! And the brothers I never had! At least, THEY never let me down, when I had problems... which I CAN'T say for our parents as they always preferred you, don't even bother denying it, I know I am right! Our dad always wanted you to become a pianist, heck, he even bought you a whole cello on your birthday! Mum always made the best Paella and all I got was always the leftovers! And you were so spoiled, you wouldn't even share your paella with me..."

His look darkened disturbingly.

"...and I had nothing from all this virtues, like always."

Mila felt sad that her, now, insane brother didn't bother listening to her words. If anything...it only gave him for fuel in hating her more since to him, this was like an act of trying to defend herself from what he was going to do to her. Her sadness then...turned into a serious and determined look as she balled her fists.

"...Fine. If you don't want to listen to my words...then I guess I will have no choice but to knock some sense into your head!" She said.

Mark smirked dirty.

"You're the one who's gonna have a knock to the head. Boys, let's get her! ...And take out that black schmuck over there too!" He ordered.

One half of the thugs attempted to get their hands on Zack, but Mila couldn't go and help him, since the other thugs prevented her from doing so.

"You want to save your friend's bacon? Then get rid of me first. Unless, you are a little pissy-pants and run away crying like a little baby." Mark taunted.

"...then don't blame me afterwards." Mila said.

She immediately got into her MMA stance, while Mark started easing up his entire body by shaking his arms and legs and even let his fingers crack, ready to brawl. Now the siblings look at one another with sharp eyes. Mila knew, that despite her knowledge in combat... Mark was sure to have a few tricks up his sleeve, because he wouldn't be so stupid to come without some kind of strategy... and her fear would become reality. She saw Mark charging at her and Mila did the same. She first began avoiding all the attacks that her brother tried to throw at her. Unlike all the other fights she had, Mark didn't seem to know how to fight for real as all he did was simply attacking his prey without thinking how to defend himself and find a way to strike at his advantage. Mila jabbed her brother twice in the face…but she didn't put much force as she didn't want to really hurt her own flesh and blood.

"...Hehe, was that all the force you pulled through!? I'm dissapointed for someone who trains like a crazy in a gym!" He taunted again.

He suddenly punched her in the stomach, making her jaw dropped and grunting in pain. This was unexpected to her. And Mark didn't feel any regrets or hesitation in doing just that. And that little moment of being stunned gave way for Mark... he charged forward, as he rammed his sister against, before punching her once in the gut, before uppercutting her real hard. And while she was in mid-air, she got grabbed by her shirt and thrown out of the way against the fence of the stairs that lead to the gym. Mark began laughing.

"Hahaha! For an MMA champ, you took this one with a little TOO much pride, sis."

This pain she felt after she crashed was different than during her sparring much. It actually hurt a lot...since she never had to deal with fights that occurred on the streets or outside of the gym. She watched Zack, who was slowly recovering, and the latter witnessed the way Mark hurt her sister. He growled in rage...before the thugs hit his head once more with the baseball bat.

"Damn you, Mark! Stop t-this nonsense this instant!" Mila yelled at her brother after seeing Zack getting hurt again like that.

"Hahaha, you expect me to take orders from you? I won't stop until you're out of this world! And the same goes for your friend right here...since he seems to have gotten close to you. How about this: Since he looks really powerless...Then I will finish it. I want you to watch...as I put someone, you care, out of his misery! You ruined my life, sis. And now I'm going to ruin yours, once he's dead and when I'll destroy all of your dreams, afterwards!"

With that being said, Mark ordered his thugs to keep stomping Zack, while he pulled out his own baseball bat and prepared to use it to hit the DJ's head until he would die. Mila had to stand up immediately. She couldn't let her brother win...not like this. She ran to him, and pulled him away from the thugs, preventing him from giving Zack more pain.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" She screamed in rage now.

"Haha! Why waste time with me? Your friend could use your help, y'know." He taunted.

He then attempted to punch her, but this time Mila foresaw it, and blocked it in time and punching him in the face instead. She then turned around and watched a thug preparing to use his baseball bat to strike Zack's head. Mila yelled a battle cry and rushed against that one specific thug and threw one powerful straight punch that sent the thug against a wall.

"Don't you dare." She muttered.

She saw the other four thugs, ignoring Zack, and now charging at her. She growled in anger and used absolute force in her hands to punch them in order to knock them out unconscious. She used some of her MMA grips and on some of them even broke the leg...and she didn't show any sign of hesitation in doing that.

"AAAARGH!" That thug yelled after the 'crack' on his leg took over.

This scared the hell out of the other thugs and all got behind their leader, Mark. After that, Mila rushed over to Zack as she checked his conditions and helped him in standing back up.

"Zack! Open your eyes! Talk to me!" Mila called him as she hoped he was still ok.

Zack, despite having been attacked unfairly, was still fully conscious, much to her fortune. But he looked like he was in bad shape, because of the constant stomping, but he could still move his arms and legs in a way.

"Mila... What's going on...?"

"No, no, it's alright, relax. I am here."

Then Zack shook his head and suddenly regained strength, while Mila took his arm around her shoulders to help him up. He got mad upon seeing Mark and his goons.

"Oh, NOW I remember...we got ambushed by that guy once more! Seems like your so called brother, Mark, didn't learn from the other day, eh?" He said as he growled.

Despite appreciating Mila's help, he 'gently' broke her help and slowly got in his fighting stance. Mark glared at the due as he was ready to order his thugs to attack again.

"What do you say, Mila...? Shall we take them down together one more time?"

But the Spanish female MMA fighter didn't look that convinced.

"Are you sure? Because you are not really looking like it, as if you are ready to kick butt..."

Zack chuckled as a response. "They don't scare me, Mily. It's not like we're fighting with powerful fighters, if you know what I mean…hehehe. "

Mila began to grin in a confident way, before letting her fists crack a little as she prepared herself.

"Then I say…let's teach these boneheads a lesson!" She said.

Mark clenched his fists upon seeing her sister and ,especially, Zack still standing and still have stamina to fight.

"CHARGE!" Mark yelled as he pointed at the two.

As he ordered, the thugs ran towards Mila and Zack. The DJ had to feel excited once more...since he was gonna team-up with her again. But just as a thug came close to the two, Zack was already there, kicking the baddy in the hip, before grabbing him by the color to knee him in the gut and then kicking him away to tumble into his partners, that were taken down with him. But, as resistant as they are, they kept standing up, causing trouble for the two... but to show their teamwork, Mila suddenly grabbed one of the coming thugs by the shoulders and kneed the same one in the gut, making him unable for movement for a few seconds, which Zack used for a straight-on knee in the face of the thug, nearly breaking the jaw in the process.

"Take that!" Zack said.

And then, to end the pain, Zack used the thug's head to jump off of it and land back on the ground in style, while the thug crashed against the stairs. Mila was impressed and excited after Zack helped her in taking down one thug in a teamwork way. That moment of carelessness caused her to be grabbed by her arms, from behind, by a thug who attempted to make her stay still to make sure the others would punch and kick her without her trying to do anything. But Mila immediately avoided the punch that was targeting her face and instead it accidentally hit the one who was holding her, thus freeing herself. The MMA champ began punching the hell out of the thug that tried to attack her as she knocked him out.

"That surely wasn't how you treat a lady. Well done, Mila." Zack commented as he watched the way the thugs tried to attack her.

The DJ then noticed two thugs coming at him and he quickly avoided their attacks to let his back face the ground...only to then smash his feet against both of their chest as he jumped back up. Then Zack saw Mila and pointed at her as he smirked. He had a little plan for their teamwork...and she nodded. Zack saw a thug charging...and the DJ kick him in mid-air before doing a backflip kick that sent him right towards Mila.

"Here I come!" Mila exclaimed determined.

Mila caught the thug in time and tackled him to the ground before giving him three mounted punches that knocked him out. Zack watched it and comically "mimicked" the way Mila was punching the thug.

"That's it, Mila! Now's time to-" Zack got cut off after Mark hit his hip, from behind, with the bat. Zack grunted in pain, before Mark hit his back again.

"Enough playing around!" Mark angrily said.

Just then, as his bat was about to come in contact with Zack's chest, the black fighter suddenly grabbed the bat with both of his thighs, making him motionless for a fraction of a few seconds, before quickly stretching his legs to kick Mark with both feet against the gut. Mark got stunned. Zack tried to ram him...but it was Mark who did it first as he tackled him and began punching his head without stopping.

"Why won't you just DIE!?" Mark growled.

Mila had enough to watch and, since most of the thugs were knocked out or were powerless to do something, she intervened and rammed her brother away from Zack. Mila then grabbed Mark by his collar to pull him up and angrily glare at him.

"Using weapons is unfair, you know that, don't you?"

She then proceeded with punching her brother one more time, before he grabbed her fist and kneed her two times in between her legs, making her almost shriek in agony, before he grabbed her by the hair, and then kicked her away from himself.

"And did you know, that this isn't a fair fight to begin with, bitch? In a battle between life and death, there are no rules!" Mark said.

But just then, as he got close enough to the knocked down and almost bleeding Mila, she waited for the right moment to attack again... he was just about to grab her by the hair again, before she suddenly jumped forward and rammed her hated brother into the ground, before grabbing him by his color and then beginning to punch him repeatedly, as she spoke in a really mad tone.

"That was so obvious, you prick! Like back when we were kids, you NEVER followed rules and only made up some for yourself! Why am I not surprised?!" She said.

Everything was then interrupted by three of Mark's goons who pulled Mila away from her boss. Mark shook his head from the hits and stood up as he cleaned the little bleeding from his mouth and gave a dirty smirk at Mila who glared at him while being held back by the thugs.

"Long have I waited for this moment! Finally...I can get you out of my mind...and out of this world! Now I can demonstrate how better I am than you!" He told her.

He took his baseball bat and prepared himself to hit her sister to the face. Zack immediately was recovering from the hits and struggled to go and do something...before a voice took over.

"You! Freeze! Surrender now! And drop the weapon!"

Mark widened his eyes in shock. He totally forgot that the police would eventually arrive…he had, in fact, get rid of his sister before they could come. His plan just failed.

"Oh shit..." Mark growled as he put his hands up. His thugs did the same.

"Stay down! Put all your hands behind your head." The cop said.

Just as the police was taking care of his business, Zack quickly ran over to help Mila up. She accepted his help to stand up without hesitating.

"The police! We are safe now! Are you ok?" Zack asked while feeling relieved.

"I'm fine, Zack." She responded with a smile.

Just as they were about to walk away back at the car, Mark yelled at the two in anger, while he, and the rest of his thugs, was being handcuffed by the police.

"This ISN'T over, Mila! You too, you shmuck! I WILL return! And when that day comes...oh, you will PAY!" He threatened.

Zack chuckled dirty as he yelled back at him. "Meanwhile, have fun in prison you idiot!"

Mila and Zack then look at one another with pride and then Zack had to ask. "Hey, how high is the chance of him dropping the soap in prison?"

"I'd say... allegedly high... depending on how much you punch him." Mila said.

"Ohhh!" Zack said as he felt amused.

The two then start laughing their butt off, they slowly walked back to Zack's car. As they both got inside the car, Mila asked Zack about that part that was hit by one of Mark's goons, but the DJ said that it was nothing and it was not like that one single hit could entirely damage his car. Mila had to agree on that. She also kinda hoped that the police would have arrived much earlier so that, at least, she would not have endured the bull crap that Mark kept throwing off as well as acting so dumb like how he did. But Zack told her that it mattered not...since he and her got to team-up again...and he enjoyed it. Mila smiled at him since she got to admit that she and Zack really make a good team. After this, Mila totally gave up on her brother and no longer knew who he was...and wanted to cut ties with him. She knew that maybe he would return...and she would wait for him to knock some sense into him again, should she even do it for the rest of her life. But now that he was gone for now...all she could do was enjoying herself.

"While we go, how about we celebrate this victory with some music?" Zack asked with a smirk.

"Go right ahead with it." She answered.

"And for you, I hope you won't mind if I... make it extra loud."

As soon as Zack starts the engine, he actives the softly-glowing blue led lights inside his car and accompanies them with a romantic-sounding song. It was 'Are You That Somebody' by Aaliyah. What Zack didn't expect though, was Mila's reaction to the song. She was silent, but then he noticed her blushing, since the music, obviously, romantic in a way... it felt awkward, until she spoke.

"I-I... I love this song! When I was young, I used to listen to it a lot, whenever I was alone!" She exclaimed.

"...Guess, I shouldn't regret my choice then." Zack said.

And with that, the two were off to home. And during the ride, Mila, despite having survived the ambush of her brother... the training and the confrontation, have made her body almost wasted. And the soft led lights didn't help... so she fell asleep, leaned against Zack. He felt surprised upon feeling her head touching his shoulder. He quickly looked at her...and her sleeping face brought a chuckle from him, before resuming driving. Once Zack arrived at destination and stopped near the entrance of her house...he noticed that Mila still didn't open her eyes. He attempted to shook her a little.

"Umm...Mily? We have arrived." He whispered to her.

But even after shaking her again, this time with more effort, she still didn't wake up... she was sleeping like a bear. So Zack, with no other choice... scratched the back of his bald head in embarrassment, because he was now forced to carry Mila to her apartment, bridal style. The thought alone made him smile, but also comically sweat.

"Oh boy... she will hate me for this later..."

He then turned off the engine and opened the door of his car to go and take on Mila into his arms. He scooped her up, in a swift motion, and carried her sleeping, but peaceful body to the door. He took a look inside her pockets to see if he can find the keys... and once he found them, he carried her carefully and softly to her home. He had it hard in trying to figure out how to turn the keys on the door to open it...since this wasn't his house. And with Mila on his arms it was even more hard. In the end he succeeded and finally was inside the house.

"Oh finally!" He said.

Due to his tiredness in trying to open the door with the key, as well as handling Mila's weight, he accidentally collapsed on the couch, thus abruptly waking up Mila.

"Uhh-Wha!? What happened...!?" She weakly said while feeling shocked.

But once she realized, Zack still had her in his arms, as if the two just got married, there was an awkward silence between the two as they look at one another with comically small eyes... before Mila started to blush madly again from how Zack positioned her in his arms.

"Z-Zack! D-Don't mean to ruin this, b-but let me go, p-please... t-this is embarrassing...!"

"S-Sure! Sure! W-Wait."

Zack turned around and stood up, before releasing Mila on her couch softly, before looking awkwardly away from her.

"D-Didn't mean to- you were asleep, alright? I-I had to carry you up here!" He said.

Once he dared to slowly turning around back to her...she noticed her weak yet confused face before she nodded.

"Oh...I see. Did you took my keys to open the door...?" She asked.

"Oh well...o-of course! How could I open the d-door otherwise...?" He said.

Mila then felt really confused at how Zack was feeling right now. Sure she too felt embarrassed...but she did not know why he was still feeling like that.

"...Zack? Why are you talking like if you're shivering...?"

Zack began stuttering a little while he tried to explain himself.

"Oh w-well...because I thought you were gonna be mad at me...for carrying you here...and I feared you would overreact or something..."

Mila was too tired to care about that... but in response, she chuckled in an innocent way, before smiling exhausted, yet cutely, at him. "It's OK... now that I think about... I didn't really mind you carrying me upstairs..."

"Phew..." Zack said after feeling relieved and a bit surprised. He then looked at the clock. It was already 8 P.M. "Well then... I will be on my way back home, alright? See ya."

Just as he was about to walk out of the apartment, Mila's voice interrupted him. "Wait."

He turned around only to see slightly disappointed look upon Mila's face.

"I thought we were going to spend time now..." She said.

Zack had to sigh. She was right. He remembered suggesting her to have fun at her house after their sparring match. But that sudden ambush from Mark was very unexpected. He could see that Mila couldn't take it anymore...and he as well.

"True, that. But Mily...do you even realize how you sound now? C'mon, we're both tired...and it's kinda late. Fear not, though: tomorrow, we will do what we couldn't do today here...if it wasn't for your psychotic brother." He reassured her.

Mila looked away for a moment, before then looking at Zack again, but with a smile this time. Zack had to say it to himself. "Oh my god... I LOVE it, whenever I see her smiling...! Such innocence, it's almost dangerous...!" He thought.

"...Alright! But if you don't keep your word, I will never show mercy on you in the ring, ever again. And it won't be me, paying for the hospital bills. Got that?" She said with a smug.

Her look became creepily dark, scaring the hell out of Zack, before... she then started chuckling out loud, indicating, that she didn't mean it seriously. "Nah, I am just kidding, no worries! Just promise me, that you will come here tomorrow, alright? Pretty please?"

"No problem... but damn, you really got me there this time. And normally, it's me who cracks jokes of that kind." He chuckled.

He pulled his sunglasses up, to make sure Mila could see his real eyes, as he winked at her.

"See ya tomorrow...in the morning? Like 10:00 AM?" He asked.

She nodded before the two waved at each other. "See you, Zack."

And with that, the DJ left the house. Now that Mila was alone in her house...she let her body rest on the sofa while thinking about how she had just passed these days. She let her head relax on the soft edge of the couch, all the while thinking about Zack. So far, it was always him, bringing some light into her boring life after the tournament. Plus, it was him who saved her from a criminal like her brother... and he pretty much gave her a reason to keep on fighting, no matter what would happen... and it was him, always managing to form a smile on her lips or brighten up her day with laughter with his comedic altitude. All that she could think about, was only Zack and nothing else, not even her idol, right now... especially after him having saved her life again tonight, with her repaying it too... she blushed, as she looked at the floor with her neutral eyes.

"Oh, Zack...now I just can't get you out of my head...and I don't mind at all."

Even if she knew that she still needed to focus on her hard training, because she sure didn't forget about her possible chances to meet and fight her idol, Bass Armstrong...Zack kept being in her thoughts. It was like if in her dreams, other than her idol and her friend, Tina...now Zack joined there with the two. Somehow, thinking about him...was now making her heart beating fast in excitement. And, as soon as she closed her eyes... a really happy grin formed on her lips. As she slowly drifted into dreamland and dozed off.


	8. Chapter 7

The next day, Mila was just eating her breakfast, that consisted of Fruity Pebbles with cold milk... which was unusual for her, since she didn't really eat any sweet stuff in the morning, except drinking orange juice from time to time. And that was not all... while she was eating, she was looking at the ceiling, in really good spirits, as if her sleep had been the best. All because of one person, that brought her to this state of mind... Zack. And as she thought about him, she constantly started swirling her spoon in the cold milk, while thinking of him. At the same time, she also kept locking the clock to see when it was 10:00 in the morning...and it was almost there. She remembered that Zack was the kind of person to be punctual...and so, while trying to stay calm, she tried to finish her breakfast in a quick way as she needed to dress up for when he arrived.

"Which clothes should I put on today...? Oh, I got it!" She exclaimed before resuming eating her breakfast.

Once she finished her breakfast, she went to her bedroom and looked for any clothes. She blushed a little after she took what she decided to wear. It was the very same clothes she used when she went to that party, the other day, where Zack was also there. The torn-up, short, yellow top with leather bands all across her wrists and suitable jeans for it. She looked at herself in the mirror and looked kind of nervous, because for once, she would put this on, all only for Zack... and thinking about it, made her shiver in excitement.

"Too suggestive...?"

The question applied to her cleavage being exposed due to the top she wore, but then, because it was Zack, who was to see this and nobody else... she decided to keep it on and blush to herself.

"Hope he likes it... I am not like Tina, FAR from her..."

The bell, from the door, rang after she said that. She gasped before quickly going to see the clock...and noticed that it was 10:12 AM. She kinda chuckled.

"Not completely punctual this time, eh? Doesn't matter though." She said as she took a quick breath before going to walk towards the door to open it.

"There you are, Zack. Hope we-"

She got cut off after she saw the way he was dressed. Of course, he was not wearing some "clown" outfit with some afro wig...or even an alien costume. He was wearing something different: A black sleeves jacket with his bare chest on the inside, as well as bandages wrapped around his wrists. A chain with the first letter of his name, his trademark sunglasses and suitable pants and shoes.

"Mily..."

"Zack..."

Both were shocked and blushed, when the saw the way they were dressing. Both of their outfits were a little suggestive.

"You look great." They even unwillingly said in union.

Then awkward silence came in between the two. They then chuckled before they made their way to the couch to talk. As soon as Zack sat down, he asked for some entertainment... but because of her being dressed very suggestive today, which he never got to experience personally, he hesitated.

"U-Umm... wanna watch something...? I-I have an idea for a... movie today..."

"...I get the snacks..." She said.

And with that, the two prepared everything and unlike last time, everything went proper this time... but the whole time the movie ran, both didn't dare looking at one another. Both tried hard to pay attention to the movie...but both of their mind were more focused on each other...despite keeping their eyes on looking at the screen. They didn't even say anything...they watched the movie in silence. However there was then that moment where their right hands reached the place with the snacks...and both took the same one they touched. Once they realize that...both gasped.

"Oh sorry! It's yours, don't worry."

"No no, Mily! You took it first, so it's actually yours."

Mila nodded and quickly took the little chip into her mouth. She began to blush madly and her heart started pounding fast again... he touched her hand and she doesn't take it too lightly. Now her brain was in a complete love-state.

"He looks so good today... but wait, what if he rejects me, because of me being dressed like that...? What if he never- no, no, no... concentrate! "

Zack however didn't have the same reaction like her... he was red, but he was actually chilled... and he began thinking to himself.

"Grgh... couldn't this get any more awkward? And normally, if it went by my old ways, I would have caressed her both physically and mentally all the way, but what's wrong with me today?"

The movie finally ended...and it did with the two protagonists, which were a man and woman...kissing each other. It was a comedy one but with a romantic ending. And upon seeing the credits...Zack turned off the TV. Silence took them...until they both looked at each other.

"So...enjoyed the movie?" He asked.

"Of course. It was hilarious but cool at the same time." She said.

He smiled at her and she returned it. But then, the awkward silence took over again. Zack looked elsewhere while Mila just kept staring at him. Once his look fell on her once more, he felt surprised as he realized that she didn't stop looking at him.

"...W-What?"

"Oh, n-nothing! I-it's just...uhh...it's weird the fact that you're so silent today...normally, you're always the typical hyperactive and funny guy. Why so silent?"

Zack looked away from her. He was scared of ruining the moment with a stupid comment... it went perfectly thus far, but now, this awkward silence needed to stop. But neither he nor Mila were ready to stop this nonsense... so he had to say something as he took over.

"L-Let's just say... I-I am not used to... see the residence of another female... f-from the inside... and that with approval even..."

"What, really? S-So I am your exception...?" She was surprised.

"Y-Yeah... for once... normally, I am very scared, even if I don't look like it..."

Mila felt kind of sad for what he stated. But then she smiled and got near him without showing any hint of hesitation as she wanted reassure him.

"C'mon now, don't be like this. I don't bite or I am poisonous. I am simply a regular girl who enjoys the company of anyone, who are my friends and make me happy...like you did these days. And honestly..."

She started blushing, but she didn't back out this time the moment she did... and instead, her eyes began to shine and eased up. "...I haven't properly thanked you for everything. I mean, how could I be so forgetful? Oh wait, because... of this..."

Those words were totally making Zack's insecurity go away. He now looked normal, but he also felt a bit strange. He looked at her and a grin formed between his lips.

"You know what? I never even thanked you for accepting my company...since you know, the boredom was bothering me so much, ever since my boss told me that I had nothing else to do there and set me free to do anything. So thanks, Mila."

Mila could not feel more alive than ever. It also ironic that despite her constant training for her future fight with Bass, she was also getting bored...because she was also feeling alone as well. They were both feeling the same thing...the loneliness. And now they both took that feeling away by simply meeting each other once more and how they spent their time.

"You're more than welcome, Zacky. And I confess that you too removed the boredom by keeping me company."

After that, both stared at each other and felt a heat inside them. They were slowly coming closer. She felt his hands slowly touching her bare sides...and their lips were about to meet. And it happened. They were kissing...but it didn't last long as Mila suddenly and abruptly broke it and gasped as she touched her mouth. Zack felt the same way...and both immediately spoke with repentance.

"Oh my god, w-what have I j-just did!?" She said.

"S-Sorry! I didn't mean it! I d-don't know what's got into me!" He said at the same time.

Both then quickly calmed down, before comically starting to look at each other nervously. They realized, that what just happened ruined the moment... but then, the two began to laugh.

"S-Sorrrrry, I am such a dork..." She said.

"What about me? I didn't hold you back..." He told her.

But then, the two stopped laughing, when they realized, this was actually a serious moment, so Mila began to look anxious again, as she looked away shamefully.

"I mean it... I am such a moron... why did I do that...?" She asked.

Zack was struggling in trying to find something he could say. He didn't want to joke as he feared he would make her upset.

"Oh well...maybe because..uhh...we couldn't help it?" He said with a slight chuckle.

That made Mila grin a little as she closed her eyes. Upon hearing what came out from Zack's mouth...she knew that he was probably thinking the same way she was thinking right now. She snapped at this and sighed hard while looking at him with, what looked like, a relaxed face.

"My goodness! Can't believe we were wasting so much time mumbling like this!" She exclaimed.

Without knowing what she was talking about, Zack was suddenly grabbed by Mila, by his neck...and his lips were touched by her own again. But this time it was longer...and she was doing like she meant it. For the first time, in his life, Zack was actually being kissed by a really hot chick. This thought alone and looking back at how some other girls, and people in general, actually viewed him... it felt like, God had just forgiven him and he had been blessed with eternal love, for the rest of his life.

"Yes... yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! This is actually HAPPENING! My first, true kiss!" He thought to himself happily.

And then, without warning, Zack had already wrapped his arms tightly around Mila's bare mid-back and pulled her close to return her kiss. She noticed how he was quick to react, but she didn't mind and simply enjoyed kissing him. They danced their tongues and it seemed like they never wanted to let go. But eventually they had to break the kiss as they had to regain to catch air. They panted while looking at each other.

"T-That...was...incredible!" He said as he took off his sunglasses to reveal his true happiness in his face.

Mila thought that now it was time to finally reveal what she really thought of him throughout these days.

"Zack...you may give the impression of being a silly person...but, on the inside, you're something else! These days you proved to me one thing, that made my interest in you grow the more. You have a confidence and fighting spirit that nobody has ever matched so far! I don't care what people might think of you...to me, you may be funny...but also a tough and loveable guy!"

Zack had to laugh, as one tear ran down his cheek. But not because he found what she told him, funny or stupid. It was because this was something that not even Niki said once to him. He was actually too happy.

"Glad to hear..." He then began to blush once more, because he laughed, after a loving kiss... so he comically sulked again. "Was that... too loud...?"

He noticed her looking at him with a smug. Damn, he loved it whenever she showed that look on his face. At this point, he too felt that now it was time to reveal his secret.

"Alright, no more secrets. Mila...you should know that normally I'm the typical guy who loves being surrounded by lots of hot ladies. But you know what? Ever since I saw you for the first time, when you contacted me as you wanted to join the tournament... when I was there testing your skills in the ring ...I was feeling the same way of when I met Tina for the first time..."

He paused a little as he didn't want to remember the way he got to know the female Armstrong...but then he continued.

"...However, I didn't want to act the same way I did. Which is to ask you out for a "date" immediately. Because I feared that I would immediately suffered rejection. Even with a harder beating...considering that you are an MMA fighter. But these days...I actually got to know you better. You are NOT what I thought, at first. And I confess...you're one of a kind! So far, you're the only one, who has treated me properly and not like some kind of clown, that acts all silly for the sake of being one... which is what sadly the majority of everyone familiar around me did... but you treated me, like an ACTUAL person. Major plus for me... and thus..."

He leaned close to her face again. "...you might be my forever-favorite-one-of-a-kind." He quietly told her.

And with that he kissed her again as well letting one hand brush through her short hair. Mila was feeling so shocked not only about his sudden will to kiss her, but also for what he just told her. She was almost feeling like if she was an angel dropped from the sky just for him. She gladly returned the kiss and, this time, they let their bodies lie on the couch as they continued kissing. They then broke it, just for the grand finale.

"Zack...I love you."

"Heh...you already know my response."

They resumed kissing as well cuddling. Both were feeling so complete. No more boredom and no more loneliness. Now they were together...in love with each other.

* * *

Mila's psychotic brother, Mark...was punching the wall of the prison, after he was arrested, in anger. He couldn't believe he was so foolish to have let his distraction in getting rid of her sister, get to him...to have the police arrest him easily.

"Damn it! I should have wiped her out immediately without wasting time talking! But maybe...it's that guy, Zack. Maybe he is the real reason why I failed! He prevented me to do anything! Grr...once I get out of here..."

"Quit your whining and perk up your ears." A female voice said.

When Mark heard the female, yet ice-cold and British-sounding voice, he looked up, only to see a dark figure in the shadows.

"Who are you!? What's your deal with me? If you are only here to bother me about my loss, you might be better off getting the hell out of my way right now."

"Hmhmhmhm... I think, you're misunderstanding me, pretty boy. I didn't come for such a trivial manner..."

And once the figure showed herself, as she somehow managed to broke inside the police station to get in that room without being detected, it revealed itself to be the one and only assassin, the silver serpent... Christie. There she was, grinning at the stunned Mark, in a cold, yet somewhat amused manner, as if she was actually pleased to see him.

"I am here, because I have a job for you. My client ordered me to bring you to him."

Mark widened his eyebrows in surprise…it totally caught his attention, before giving a slight grin.

"...I am all ears."


End file.
